PILOTS ADMIT THEY HAVE US IN THEIR SIGHTS
IN FIRING LINE: The MoD admits pilots use Scots homes as targets during
practice Monday June 23,2008 By David Scott
FIGHTER pilots use civilian cars and homes as practice targets while on
low-level training missions across rural Scotland, the Ministry of Defence
has admitted. The pilots routinely buzz cars, rowing boats and farmers
working in fields to prepare crews for attacking real targets in Iran or
Afghanistan.
Rural communities have been outraged by the low flying. Two vast areas – one in the north of the country and one in the south – have been designated
Tactical Training Areas where jets can fly as low as 100ft.
In the past five years, nearly 56,000 hours of low-flying have taken place, mainly in the north, the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.
Now the SNP has demanded the MoD review its policy. Rob Gibson, Nationalist MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said: “Targeting people in their homes and cars is unacceptable. The MoD is a blight on our economic lives and on our everyday lives.”
He was speaking after he received a reply from Derek Twigg MP,
Under-Secretary of State for Defence, in response to a constituent’s
complaint.
Mr Twigg wrote: “Air-crew are required as part of their training to select
practice targets. “This may include vehicles (in simulation of military vehicles) as well as buildings.”
An MoD spokesman said: “Low flying is rigorously controlled and monitored.
Since 1988 the total number of sorties has been reduced by a third, and
those by jets by more than half.”
This is apparently news to the scots today.
The MOD spokesperson is struggling to defend routine training in this sensationalist story. It just makes me wonder what sort of training should be allowed and where it should take place in the eyes of these complainers.
DF