Federal Police helicopters flew this bike pattern Photo: Screenshot: ADS-B Exchange – dpa
By Peter Oldenburger
Was that just a coincidence or a joke? The flight route of a Federal Police helicopter raises this question. Because: The course bears an amazing resemblance to the outline of a bicycle.
One thing is clear: the police helicopter was used to protect Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu during his state visit. He should be watching the northern airspace.
First, a helicopter of the state police was suspected. However, this was corrected on Friday by police spokesman Martin Halweg at the BZ request.
It is still unknown why the pilot traced a radar signature in the form of a wheel.
According to the federal police, the helicopters were kept in several sectors in the air in a so-called waiting procedure in order to record, approach and identify all flight movements or possible aircraft entering the airspace.
A Eurocopter EC155 federal police helicopter Photo: Carsten Rehder/dpa
The corridors were manned by the police for 2.5 hours in order to be able to react quickly in the event of an incident. According to federal police spokesman Christian Marx, individual points and destinations would be flown to without leaving the sectors.
This results in corresponding radar signatures with typical or sometimes also atypical patterns. What the radar signature looks like is irrelevant and the pilot decides on the course in the airspace. The main thing is that air protection is guaranteed, also in the form of a bicycle.