Circling helicopters - what are they doing?

[PixelNomad]

There is a helicopter circling above our neighbourhood. It got me thinking - what is it they are doing? In the past I always thought 'there are looking for a criminal' but are they?
Any knowledgeable mumsnetters who know what helicopters circling overhead are up to?

We had this a few months ago, in that case they were looking for a criminal

If you’re near a river they may be looking for a body.

Missing people, criminals, taking photos of scenes from above, monitoring crimes in action, giving updates to central control, could be anything.

So it is most likely related to a crime then?

Could be an air ambulance looking for somewhere to land. We had that recently.

Can you see what colour helicopter it is, is it definitely police?

Where I am it’s usually air ambulance or coast guard. Occasionally police too but not often.

If you check flight radar you can normally identify it

Look on flight radar to see what sort of helicopter it is

Yesterday it was the electricity board surveying the substation and associated pylons.
We’ve also had the police helicopter searching the river, and searching the neighbourhood and air ambulance attempting to land.

Looking for a criminal.
Looking for a missing person.
Monitoring traffic.
Practicing manoeuvres.
Doing it just to annoy people.
Looking for somewhere to land.
Pretending they are part of that old telly show Treasure Hunt.
Who knows......🚁

Where I am it is usually RAF dropping off crew on exercise.

Could be they are flying the lines to check for damage. FlightRadar is your friend here.

It seems to have gone now 😀I'll check if it returns!

Ours are usually local news choppers doing the traffic news/looking at a crash

It’s most likely the electricity board. It flies really low and circles around power lines checking for damage.

Look on flight radar, might be on that.

different reasons include crime, looking for missing persons, coastguard/air ambulance for medical or injury reasons, National grid checking wires, surveying

Is there,a swanky country hotel nearby? We get them everyday as some of the more wealthy guests like to fly over the villages nearby..fuck only knows why.

This👆

Normally here it is rescue services looking for someone in the river.
Air Ambulance normally attending a RTA.
County Council checking for illegal burning.
Local Business man showing off.

@PixelNomad where we live it's usually because they are looking for an at risk person. Is seems to happen at least once a month. We are semi rural though.

Thanks everyone! Will check flight radar next time!

Interesting!

Could be anything from missing persons to leisure where I live, we have mountain rescue the police and a company who do helicopter rides.

Yes, we get this a lot. They always seem to be yellow helicopters, not sure if that's just us though.

We live quite near a hospital but the coastguard helicopters apparently don't fit on the helipad like the air ambulance ones do. If a coastguard helicopter is coming in to land they circle round to find somewhere near the hospital.