To dislike the helicopters flying noisily around London at night?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

The sound is quite something - I can't see anything out my windows but the noise is startlingly loud at certain points. Sounds really close at times.

I have a wild imagination, and shudder in case it's the police or military urgently working to foil some attempt at terrorism. Discomfiting at 2am - makes me think of how hard people are working to keep us all safe and keep the city running as normal. They do seem to do loops of the area on repeat though so I guess that suggests routine work.

Anyone else kept awake by them tonight?

Yes! I am up with DS who is going through a phase of refusing to go back to sleep... but the helicopter noise has been driving me nuts. Also in London - maybe it's the same one

Admittedly I'm not in my most tolerant mood as we've been awake since 11.30pm...

A helicopter circling over a residential area at this time of the night will not be “routine work” (not sure exactly what routine work would require that anyway?)

It’s most likely police looking for someone/something.

Are you also north London?
It seems to have been going on and off for weeks already.

Could be air ambulance? Police?

Yep, north London. I'm still awake!

What kinds of scenarios do they search for somebody from a helicopter? I have appalling short sight so I'd never be able to see anything much from way up there, especially in the dark, so I can't get my head round it

Don't think it's air ambulance as it was going on for ages, like they're doing big sweeping circuits.

We had a helicopter overhead with searchlight for a couple of hours recently which turned out to be looking for an elderly person with dementia.

Also London and yes this has been happening a lot recently! The other week one was practically sitting on top of us for about 45 mins before looping around a good million times. I did lock the back door just in case

Having grown up in 1980s N Ireland, helicopters overhead was a nightly occurrence and I barely noticed them.

Now we rarely see helicopters and the noise is very distinctive and I wonder how on earth I ever found it to just be routine background noise.

I know that recently when I heard one hover for hours it was because they were searching for a missing person, nothing to do with terrorism or anything like that. I think they can use heat sensing equipment for that sort of thing, although I suppose that makes more sense when they're searching in a field than when they are searching in a city...

I live semi rural and we have them overhead pretty frequently. I'm surprised you don't get them more often in London or maybe you only notice it more when they're circling overhead? Sounds travel further here. They'll definitely be looking for someone specific the heat sensors pick up people jumping across gardens or hiding in bins and so forth.

@AbsentmindedWoman they have thermal imaging technology that picks up body heat so they don't have to rely on their eye sight!!

If it's the police helicopter it will be up for either a high risk missing person, a fugitive who has committed a crime and fled the scene or for monitoring a pursuit (although that tends to involve it moving rather than hovering in the same place obviously!)

I used to live in an area of town (not London) with lots of alleys and a park, so ne’er-do-wells use it to try to escape from the Police. That meant the police helicopter was a regular visitor at night. It really is very loud when it’s overhead. And the circling... oh good, it’s gone! Oh, it’s back... repeat.

Grew up in 1980s west Belfast, where this was the nightly soundtrack.

It still irritates the hell out of me in London when a helicopter seems to be right above my house, though!

@isabellerossignol just read your post. Exactly that! Perhaps we were more tolerant of the noise as children...

I live in a (high crime) part of north London and hear the helicopter at some point most days/nights. It def didn’t used to be the case and I’ve wondered whether it’s related to police budget cuts (as in, fewer patrols on foot/car, therefore following a suspect via air is a more efficient way of catching them).

I do have some general worries about the crime in my neighbourhood and I want to get out before my DC start secondary school, but the helicopter doesn’t add to that at all, it just really really annoys me!

Chasing a suspect by helicopter is far more efficient than chasing on foot especially at night when they use thermal imaging. They can then spot fugitives in,for example, wheelie bins and direct ground crews to them. Its expensive so special criteria have to be fulfilled. Same for high risk missing persons, vulnerable adults and children.
Its honestly not done with the intention of annoying you but to try and keep everyone safe and catch the dangerous criminals/find missing people at high risk quickly. It really does save lives.

Personally I think the use of helicopters in urban areas needs to be reduced a lot - they are dangerous as the accidents in Glasgow and Vauxhall proved. They should only be used where there is no alternative.

I once lived somewhere where they were out every Sunday night around 11.30pm. It can't have been an accident or fugitive every week at the same time, they must have been on an exercise of some kind. But at that time on a Sunday night? Someone was taking the mick.

I live in South London and helicopters often mean stabbing or shootings I'm afraid

@fairweathercyclist they are only used when there isn't an alternative, not least because they're very expensive to mobilise. A small number of isolated incidents cannot be a reason to not use a vital tool either; if that was the case we'd not have any motorised vehicles out of fear something might happen. In a similar vein I can't see why they would have drills over a populated area, for that very reason.

OP I'm sorry that it kept you awake but be comforted knowing that whoever needs to be caught will be off the streets (and into safety or custody) much quicker because of the helicopter.

I live in a rural town, but due to location & crime rate, we have police helicopters overhead at night a lot. It took a bit to get used to it but only notice now if they hover directly overhead.