Small gyrocopters flew low over Norway’s famed Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) last week, disturbing visitors, scaring others and angering tour guides. The gyrocopters were noisy and two of them reportedly held an elevation of only around 15 meters above people’s heads.
Tour guide David Bruns was on the mountain plateau with its sheer drop down to the Lysefjord below when the silence of the popular site with its spectacular views was broken. “At first we thought they were drones, but when we looked up, we saw there were four small helicopters flying towards us,” Bruns told local newspaper Stavanger Aftenbladet.
They turned out to be gyrocopters, small open-air rotorcraft that Bruns feared would startle so many people that they may lose their balance or forget how dangerous the mountain plateau can be. “I’ve been a guide on Preikestolen for 10 seasons and been up there around 200 times,” Bruns said. “I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
He was escorting a group of cruiseship passengers up to the landmark and said the four gyrocopters came from the north. Two kept their distance from the people on the plateau, but the two others flew at a level so low that Bruns compared it to not much higher than a flagpole. “One came in so low that the pilot made a swing and waved at us,” he told Stavanger Aftenbladet.
“When not even drones are allowed up on Preikestolen because they can distract people, it’s frightening that these copters fly so low with so much noise,” Bruns said. “We had a lot of visitors and several small children with us. Folks can look up instead of paying attention to where they’re going. At worst, they could stumble or fall.”
Another guide on Preikestolen also reacted negatively to the gyrocopters, and claimed they don’t belong over one of Norway’s most-visited tourist destinations. “We had to stop the tour because the noise was so high,” guide Silvia Jastram told the paper. She called the gyrocopters “totally unacceptable” and agreed that they can distract people from being careful about where they go, especially children. “This is the last thing we want up at Preikestolen,” she said.
Bruns said the gyrocopters stayed in the area for around 10- to 15 minutes before flying east, and he called the police. Operations leader Anders Oppedal of Norway’s Southwest district confirmed reports of the incident and police in turn warned the aviation tower at Sola, where Stavanger’s airport is located. Air traffic controllers confirmed they had detected the activity over Preikestolen in their systems and would try to contact the pilots.
“We don’t ever want to experience something like this again,” Bruns told Stavanger Aftenblad. “Safety is our highest priority, and when aircraft fly so low as they did, I think it’s dangerous.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
