Did any of you catch a glimpse of the US Air Force jet that flew over Longford airspace on Tuesday morning?
The pilot of the Boeing C-17A Globemaster III, which landed at Casement Aerodrome Baldonnel, informed air traffic controllers that he wished to fly over his native Longford to say a little hello.
You can listen to the audio between the pilot and ATC courtesy of this recording by LiveATC.net (click on the arrow on the bottom left corner of the image above to take a listen and particularly from 4 minutes in for the reference to County Longford)
The arrival of the US military aircraft generated much interest among eagle eye aviation enthusiasts (see tweets below) and the huge Boeing C-17A Globemaster III took the scenic route over the Cliffs of Moher, Galway Bay and the midlands before landing at Baldonnel.
According to a statement released by the Irish Air Corps to Flying In Ireland, the aircraft’s visit was “on a technicality stop en-route to the UK as part of a crew training mission.”
The Boeing C-17 landed at around 08.50am and departed at 11.50am heading across Dublin City and north to Prestwick in Scotland.
The callsign used by the flight was ‘SLAM69’ on both the inbound and outbound leg of the flight.
The C-17 Globemaster III is the most flexible cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force. The C-17 is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area. Read more here
This morning a U.S. Air Force C-17 inbound to Baldonnell took a scenic detour along the Cliffs of Moher and then up to Longford. Pilot informed ATC that he's a native of Longford and was back to say hello. pic.twitter.com/xSKIULX8eM
— Oisín Tierney (@TierneyOisin) May 18, 2021
Good to see the lads enjoyed their visit to Ireland https://t.co/om8JnmslwR
— Oisín Tierney (@TierneyOisin) May 18, 2021
File photo of a US Airforce Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. Image by Brent Connelly from Pixabay
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