Mystery late night flights were for Bord na Móna

The late night aerial surveys carried out in Westmeath and neighbouring counties this month, and which have been the subject of much speculation, were commissioned by Bord na Móna, the Westmeath Examiner can reveal.

When contacted by the paper, the semi-state body said that the aerial survey conducted in the east of the county in the early hours of Sunday morning and one carried in the early hours of November 4 in Westmeath and nearby counties were commissioned as part of its peatlands restoration work. The surveys were conducted by the English aviation firm, the RVL Group, which also conducted a day-time survey in the midlands on November 5.

Online flight records show that the most recent survey took place between 3.30am and 5am on Sunday morning last and focused on a strip of land between Kinnegad and Clonmellon. The aircraft had earlier spent a similar amount of time conducting a survey along the Galway Roscommon border.

A Delvin resident who contacted the Westmeath Examiner said that the noise from the plane woke her and a number of her neighbours up. The resident said that she posted about the flight on social media and got 35 comments from friends and neighbours who had heard it.

“It could have passed over eight to 10 times every five or 10 minutes. The types of comments were: ‘I heard it, very loud, woke the baby,’ ‘set off the dogs barking’, ‘the racket it made’, ‘kept waking up, so annoying’. There was a huge amount of people who woke with it.”

The resident, who asked that her name not be published, also noted that there was speculation that the flight was linked to two wind energy developments proposed for the area, one by Galetech and one by Bord na Móna Powergen. “People locally think that there may be a link with wind turbines, especially as it went in Ballivor direction [where Bord na Móna plans to construct a 26-turbine wind farm].

In a statement to the Westmeath Examiner, Bord na Móna explained why some of the aerial surveys were conducted at night. “This work is weather dependent and therefore some flights are taking place at night when the skies are clear. All required aviation approvals are in place for these flights.”

The firm also said that its peatland restoration work is “part of a range of major climate action measures that are being implemented by the company to help Ireland become carbon neutral by 2050”.

“Bord na Móna’s peatlands restoration operations will secure millions of tonnes of carbon in the peatlands, support employment and will greatly improve habitats for native plants and animal species across tens of thousands of hectares of our land.”