Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Bristol Post

World

Janet Hughes

Incredible footage shows Chinook taking off in West Country field

West Country (Location) Hollywood

A woman captured on camera the rare moment a Chinook took off from a West Country field.

Their distinctive sound is one we all know from the cinema. Affectionately nicknamed Wokkas after the sound its rotas make, the Chinook is a military movie star.

A staple in disaster, it has also appeared in the Simpsons, numerous computer games and TV programmes like the Walking Dead. On-screen, the familiar sound of a Chinook usually means help is arriving, the military is evacuating or it's the end of the world, reports Gloucestershire Live.

So not surprisingly walkers in the Wye Valley were stunned to hear the sound of a Chinook helicopter landing and taking off in a field next to the river. Motorists and ramblers stopped in their tracks when they heard the distinctive sound and saw the chopper land and take off on the grass near the famous Bigsweir Bridge.

Carolyn Thomas was driving along the valley after spotting the heavy-lift helicopter in a field. She captured this amazing video of the aircraft taking off and flying over the Forest of Dean.

"It’s not every day a Chinook lands by Bigsweir Bridge," said the yoga teacher from St Briavels in the Forest of Dean. "Just had to stop and video. It was stunningly graceful for such a huge thing."

After posting the image on social media on April 27, others came forward to say they had seen it flying over Ross-on-Wye and other villages in the area on the same day. Those that had seen it land said it was amazing how it lifted so effortlessly into the air when it took off again.

As they can carry up to 55 troops and/or up to 10 tonnes of freight they are usually seen dropping off supplies in war zones or evacuating casualties from the battlefield. But householders across the area have reported several sightings of the military helicopter which is normally seen in Hollywood war movies in recent months.

In March, the double-bladed chopper was spotted landing in a farmer's field near Chipping Campden. The MoD said then that pilots practise landing and taking off with the landowner's permission.

They often pass over Gloucestershire on training exercises from their bases at RAF Odiham in Hampshire and RAF Benson in South Oxfordshire. Sometimes they are seen en route for stop-offs at Gloucestershire Airport to refill fuel tanks.

Increased sightings of the Boeing CH-47 Chinooks have led to unconfirmed speculation that there is increased activity in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In the same week, NATO said it would be carrying out military exercises this summer that would be a demonstration of the West's solidarity and strength.

But the sound of military helicopters is very familiar in the Wye Valley which is a well-known training spot for military pilots who have to negotiate the wooded gorge as it narrows towards Chepstow. Several years ago one military helicopter was even stranded after breaking down on playing fields at Monmouth.