a helicopter from the national gendarmerie will fly over the city at low altitude for 10 days
Until February 10, a helicopter from the national gendarmerie will fly over the Toulouse conurbation at low altitude. The objective is to carry out a precise mapping of the sector to secure the next major sporting events.
You may have seen or heard it before…
A helicopter has been flying over Toulouse and the surrounding area since Tuesday February 1. For 10 days the National Gendarmerie will thus go through the agglomeration with a “fine comb” to produce a very precise map of the sector and best protect the population at the time of major sporting events.
Since Tuesday February 1, and until February 10, an EC 145 helicopter flies over the agglomeration. It will be present in the sky of Toulouse, weekdays between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. The helicopter will take off from Toulouse Francazal airport, at a rate of three departures per day.
This operation requires overflights at about 50 meters above the roofs. This is called a “grazing flight”. These round trips are made at a speed of 70 km/h. A relatively low speed to allow the device to be as stable as possible. Because it will take hundreds of aerial shots to achieve this mapping.
These low-altitude flights in the skies of Toulouse are part of preparations ahead of major sporting events. Carried out under the aegis of the Ministry of the Interior, these missions are carried out regularly over other cities, by the Air Force, the Gendarmerie or Civil Security. This device makes it possible to produce a reference map at a given moment.
This operation therefore aims to protect the population, with the aim of operational preparation for major events to come, in particular the 2023 Rugby World Cup or the 2024 Olympic Games.
Prefecture of Haute Garonne
The Prefecture specifies that apart from noise pollution, the mission has no consequences on the areas overflown. No particular measure is to be taken for the Toulouse population.
56 blue helicopters crisscross the skies of France mainly for public security missions (surveillance, pursuit of criminals), but also for search for missing persons and rescue missions (in high mountains, near the coast). Of these aircraft, 15 are EC 145s.
VS’is a utility helicopter lightweight and developed by Airbus Helicopters.