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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Laura Clements

Why a fighter jet spent an entire day circling a large part of Wales

A fighter jet spent an entire day circling in the clouds above west Wales leaving many people puzzled over why.

Starting on Tuesday morning low rumblings, which sounded a bit like distant thunder, could be heard right across Pembrokeshire.

People reported hearing the jet engines, which were made to sound louder because of the low cloud cover, in Johnston, St Clears, Tenby, and Narberth.

Flight radar showed the reason for the repeated rumblings: a F-35 fighter jet was looping the Pembrokeshire skies as part of a training exercise being undertaken by the RAF.

The F-35 flew in from RAF Marham in King's Lynn in Norfolk and while the weather made it impossible to see the aircraft it was certainly heard.

The noise subsided by Tuesday afternoon but had returned on Wednesday morning for a second day of training. However, on Wednesday, it was a US F-15s from RAF Lakenheath making all the noise as part of a different training exercise.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the exercise was not hosted by the Castlemartin Range in Pembrokeshire. They said: "We can confirm a RAF F-35 Lightning from RAF Marham was conducting routine training in the area on the day in question (January 19)."

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