A helicopter pilot in the UK traveled a long way to get a sandwich, and some critics don’t like it.
The pilot, who has not yet been identified, was caught making a stop for a meal at the Chipping Farm Shop after the farm shared a video documenting the moment on Instagram.
“When your customers are literally ‘flying’ to collect their favorites’ Roast Beef in Caramelized Onion Gravy Barms,” Preston’s farm put the caption on his clip on Sunday, February 28, which shows the pilot getting his lunch delivered by a staff member while they wait in the helicopter.
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Not everyone under the post agreed with the pilot’s decision to have lunch at the farm. The UK is currently blocked again due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has issued an order that says “no leisure flights are allowed” for general aviation.
However, it is not clear whether the pilot was in service, as there is an exception that allows general aviation “for work purposes, where it is not reasonably possible to work or provide these services at home”.
Commentators who opposed the interruption of the meal expressed that they felt it violated national travel guidelines, which urged residents to stay local while health officials try to reduce COVID-19 numbers.
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“Observing COVID rules and staying ‘local’, I see! 80 miles,” wrote a commentator without providing a source to back up the distance the pilot is said to have traveled, but a BBC report states that a local resident tracked the helicopter roundtrip from the city Airport and helipad in Salford to Preston with a flight radar website.
Apart from a distance, an Instagram user who claims to work for the UK’s National Health Service said he was upset by the pilot’s decision. In their own words, they wrote: “I am an NH worker living in a caravan in my garage to protect me from living at home. I am disgusted by this.”
Meanwhile, other Instagrammers saw no problem with what the pilot did, especially since they stayed in his helicopter.
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“I’ve never known such an uproar for anything, people should be together and supporting each other right now,” argued one commentator. “There are already small businesses collapsing due to this disaster, without all the negativity about this one.”
Another Instagram user joked that critics “would like to be able to buy a helicopter”.
The Chipping Farm Shop did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment.
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Local authorities reportedly disagree with the helicopter’s maneuver, according to the BBC.
The Ribble Valley Borough Council member, who represents the Chipping wing, reportedly told the news agency that the pilot’s helicopter stop “appears to be a flagrant abuse of travel restrictions under current blocking rules.”
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Greater Manchester police are investigating the incident.