The aircrew spend a fair amount of time planning in order to select a route that doesn't directly over-fly towns and villages, where possible. Clearly, that is not always possible, but the pilot will, as in the instance yesterday, gently "weave" around houses etc to minimise risk.
The activity in East Anglia has just been routine training and tasking - nothing secretive, I promise!
Ash and trash, as ever!
SOP in an emergency is to fly the load to a safe area and ditch if neccessary. Obviously, some emergencies will prevent that, but they are most unlikely.