Has Santa’s Sleigh Dropped In The English Channel ??

[Finetoday]

What is this doing on Flightradar at 3:40am on Xmas morning??

I wonder if it's a spotter plane looking for people or bodies? As awful as it sounds 😢

A pilot's extreme way of lulling excitable children to sleep? Or at least get them out the way so the other parent can put out the stockings.

@timetodecide2345 I thought that but it’s covering such a distance 🧐

I’ve just got to bed after present wrapping and I’m now on flight scanner watching a wee plane do weird shit in the English Channel. 🤣 Merry Christmas 🎄😅

I reverse searched the image and found similar flight plan and same plane from October 😅 It’s apparently a patrol plane for spotting migrants.

What a job on Christmas morning 😫

@Ilovepotato That’s brilliant 😁

It’s at 21000 feet though- surely they aren’t gonna see much !

The registration has been withheld on that Flightradar screen snapshot but there’s enough info there to see the aircraft is probably a type known pretty universally known as a Dash 8.

Various authorities worldwide (including UK) use the type for patrol and border surveillance…

It can come equipped with radar and other sensors (e.g Infrared) that possibly work best at medium altitude and using such sensors means that there’s no need to fly at low level for the crew to see stuff visually with their Mark one eyeballs.

Not sure if this link refers to the actual aircraft seen today but it provides background:

https://www.key.aero/article/uk-home-office-calls-dash-8-counter-small-boats

Imagine trying to cross the English channel in a small boat with your children, in the freezing cold, on Christmas morning 😢

When you could stay safely in France?

You’d need to ask the authorities how many it stops.

The technology onboard that aircraft should stop at least some of them arriving undetected by improving the chances of detection and interception somewhere en-route by either the French or UK authorities.

I hope this thread gets deleted. What horrible comments on Christmas Day from a lightheaded thread about Santa.