THE eagle-eyed among you may have spotted a distinctive yellow helicopter flying low over Hereford this afternoon (Friday, June 7).

It belongs to Western Power who own and operate a fleet of five helicopters from its helicopter unit headquarters at Bristol airport.

These are used in the electricity distribution industry for the maintenance and repair of networks and also during emergency and fault conditions.

They can survey about 130 kilometres to 160 kilometres of line during a five-hour fly, which is split into two sorties.

Flight Radar says that the helicopter took off at 1.20pm from Shobdon before travelling over North Herefordshire, down the western side of the city, and then circling the Allensmore, Cobhall Common and Goose Pool area.

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The National Grid said that its helicopter crews do a vital job spotting potential network issues from the sky.

A spokesperson for the National Grid said: "During a five-hour fly the helicopters can cover between 60 and 100 kilometres of line.

"To put that in context, if we did that on the ground it would take a Land Rover 10 days to complete that inspection."