Point Cook residents, take note: a low-flying aircraft will be hovering over the suburb in the next week as part of flight path safety checks.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) will be running the flight path safety checks at 16 aerodromes across the state between December 5-11, including over the Point Cook RAAF base.
The checks are carried out every three years to ensure that existing flight paths at the aerodromes continue to be safe.
In particular, the checks make sure that any obstacles – towers, trees, masts or buildings – are accurately marked on flight charts, and that no new obstacles exist.
A twin-engine Cessna Conquest aircraft will be used to carry out the safety checks with a 35 kilometre radius of each aerodrome.
“Low-level flying is an essential part of the safety exercise, with the aircraft down as low as several hundred feet at times,” a CASA statement read.
The flight checks come almost a month after Black Hawk helicopters performed high-speed runs close to rooftops in Wyndham and Hobsons Bay as part of the army’s urban counter-terrorism training.
The Australian Defence Force exercises included night flights without lights.
