Have you noticed that a plane has been flying over Zoetermeer for hours? It disappears and comes back every 45 minutes, and it constantly flies the same route. Why is the plane here?
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Our colleague Jurgen Rupschus from nearby Woerden is an airplane fanatic and spends all day looking at Flightradar24. This shows you exactly which flights are taking place over our country in real time. Right above Zoetermeer, he suddenly saw a lot of the same parallel lines that form one route, and he warned our editors.
More and more of these types of flights
An airplane that keeps flying back and forth seems mysterious anyway. But why would an airplane fly such a pattern? We contact Kempen Airport in Budel: the place where the plane departed from. There, an employee tells us that it is a survey flight.
Organizations such as Google and the government commission these survey flights. This is because there are photo and video recording equipment on board that can take special aerial photos and videos. Some organizations request images with a clear blue sky like today, others specifically ask for night images.
Can’t I say
There is an increasing demand for these types of recordings. “At our airport, the aerial photography company has expanded from one to two aircraft,” says an employee. A third will be added shortly. These types of planes fly all over the world.” Unfortunately, the employee cannot say what the flight over Zoetermeer is intended for.