Orb UAP photographed by pilot on tarmac and flying during the day in Manchester

Judging by the photos and the video and change in position this object was not enough to cease taxiway operations

unnamed.jpg is probably taken 1st and the aircraft from which the photo is taken is located on the apron and not yet on the taxiway. We see a Ryan Air jet turned towards the runway, a red and white livered plane behind it and then a TUI plane and then another blue jet

unnamed (1).jpg is taken from roughly the same place and the planes are the same, so probably very close together.

unnamed (2).jpg is taken from near the I <3 MCR sign, is that the object with that rain drop over it moved on to the oval area on the apron and a some sort of airport vehicle with the yellow light?

1732819444255.png

The planes are still moving, Ryan Air is heading onto the runway

The video is taken from much further along the taxiway towards the end of it, Ryan Air is gone an Red/White is turning, the plane taking the video is still moving.
 
I found the date and time using Flight Radar looking for the correct formation of planes. It's from the 9th June between 19:05-19:08



Video was taken from an EasyJet A320. And in the image we can see the following planes in order:

Ryan Air 737-800
Easy Jet A320
TUI 737 Max 8
KLM E295

Link to timeshot on Flight Radar (will need a temp sub to do playback)

There was a live stream on the same day, however it ends around 5/6 hours before the incident.
 
Psytechnic said:
I found the date and time using Flight Radar looking for the correct formation of planes. It's from the 9th June between 19:05-19:08



Video was taken from an EasyJet A320. And in the image we can see the following planes in order:

Ryan Air 737-800
Easy Jet A320
TUI 737 Max 8
KLM E295

Link to timeshot on Flight Radar (will need a temp sub to do playback)

There was a live stream on the same day, however it ends around 5/6 hours before the incident.
Click to expand...


May be worth crowd sourcing on social media to see if we can find a witness on that flight who may have seen anything.
 
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jarlrmai said:
Looks real enough to me, just a reflection probably i don't see any reason to doubt the authenticity here.

I think the 'shadow' is more likely a reflection on the wet concrete.
Click to expand...
You are probably right. The brightness of the tarmac around and beyond the object is probably a reflection of the cloudy sky we see in the background, reflected off of the wet tarmac. The darkness immediately "below" the object then would be a reflection of the dark lower surface of the balloon, not so much a shadow as there doesn't appear to be direct sunlight on the ground. Just light filtered through the clouds.

But that does not alter the impression that the object appears to be on the ground.
 
Use of personal electronic devices while operating a commercial aircraft is prohibited by the company and the Feds.

The pilot could lose their job if outed.

Lots of pictures and videos from pilots out there but if it's getting media attention that would be scary for the photographer.
 
Psytechnic said:
I found the date and time using Flight Radar looking for the correct formation of planes. It's from the 9th June between 19:05-19:08
Click to expand...

Wow, nice find. I'd been trying to filter the historic flight departure data available on the Manchester Airport Website, but without knowing the date there was over 150 days to look through, plus the website only give the time that the planes leave the gate, not the actual time they took off.
I was trying to cross reference it with days that had rain on this website, but that didn't really help either because it rains so often in Manchester. :p

1732868987900.png
 
Psytechnic said:
I found the date and time using Flight Radar looking for the correct formation of planes. It's from the 9th June between 19:05-19:08



Video was taken from an EasyJet A320. And in the image we can see the following planes in order:

Ryan Air 737-800
Easy Jet A320
TUI 737 Max 8
KLM E295

Link to timeshot on Flight Radar (will need a temp sub to do playback)

There was a live stream on the same day, however it ends around 5/6 hours before the incident.
Click to expand...

How much effort was this, did you have to just go through each minute of each day or did you have some other method, I know you can narrow down the date by the foliage to summer, but still that's a lot of effort..

ADSB Exchange is missing the KLM plane
 
tjskep said:
so the airport wasn't shut down behind all of this??
Click to expand...
The flight data indicates take offs and taxis from this area of the airport were unaffected.

With the information (area/date/time) in this thread a journalist may be able to ask MAN about it.
 
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tjskep said:
so the airport wasn't shut down behind all of this??
Click to expand...
@jarlrmai suggested earlier that the airport sent a vehicle to check, but if they saw it and determined that it was a single balloon with no string, then that probably wouldn't have been seen as much of an issue.

Something heavy, or worse, something that fell off an aircraft, would've been a different matter.
 
flarkey said:
Wow, nice find. I'd been trying to filter the historic flight departure data available on the Manchester Airport Website, but without knowing the date there was over 150 days to look through, plus the website only give the time that the planes leave the gate, not the actual time they took off.
I was trying to cross reference it with days that had rain on this website, but that didn't really help either because it rains so often in Manchester. :p
Click to expand...
I'm just in shock that someone's got even madder skills than you, flarkey! Great work.
 
john.phil said:
It was mentioned on Twitter that it happened in June.
Click to expand...
yeah, but I wasn't that confident that estimate of the date was correct. All we had for sure was 'before Nov 25' as that was when the photos were first posted, and 'in the last few months'.
 
If this was a really significant case where the time/date lock would have killed it then the effort might have gone in a lot sooner, I'm impressed if someone had the patience to go through the activities on the taxiway for a very busy airport like MAN for a month.

If @Psytechnic had another method that would be helpful for future investigations.

Here I think looking at ti you narrow it down by

Summer 2024 (late May to August) based on the tree foliage
Raining/overcast weather (a lot this year) based on the weather in the images.
Daytime based on the lighting.
A320 takeoffs from that taxiway, based on the cockpit panel, but even then the A320 is a common aircraft around 4000 in service.
I guess you could do it by narrowing it down to TUI or Ryan Air if you were confident on the model number, but again these are very common UK airlines.

And even then if you were doing it on ADSB Exchange you might have missed it because the KLM flight is missing.
 
jarlrmai said:
If this was a really significant case where the time/date lock would have killed it then the effort might have gone in a lot sooner, I'm impressed if someone had the patience to go through the activities on the taxiway for a very busy airport like MAN for a month.

If @Psytechnic had another method that would be helpful for future investigations.

Here I think looking at ti you narrow it down by

Summer 2024 (late May to August) based on the tree foliage
Raining/overcast weather (a lot this year) based on the weather in the images.
Daytime based on the lighting.
A320 takeoffs from that taxiway, based on the cockpit panel, but even then the A320 is a common aircraft around 4000 in service.
I guess you could do it by narrowing it down to TUI or Ryan Air if you were confident on the model number, but again these are very common UK airlines.

And even then if you were doing it on ADSB Exchange you might have missed it because the KLM flight is missing.
Click to expand...

User @Psytechnic 's method is here:


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1h1uwyp/comment/lzefotz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
 
jarlrmai said:
If this was a really significant case where the time/date lock would have killed it then the effort might have gone in a lot sooner, I'm impressed if someone had the patience to go through the activities on the taxiway for a very busy airport like MAN for a month.

If @Psytechnic had another method that would be helpful for future investigations.

Here I think looking at ti you narrow it down by

Summer 2024 (late May to August) based on the tree foliage
Raining/overcast weather (a lot this year) based on the weather in the images.
Daytime based on the lighting.
A320 takeoffs from that taxiway, based on the cockpit panel, but even then the A320 is a common aircraft around 4000 in service.
I guess you could do it by narrowing it down to TUI or Ryan Air if you were confident on the model number, but again these are very common UK airlines.

And even then if you were doing it on ADSB Exchange you might have missed it because the KLM flight is missing.
Click to expand...
My method was looking at which days it rained in June as mentioned above in my post on Reddit but the most important part was filtering Flight Radar playback by KLM and the plane model (Embraer 195-E2) which another user on Reddit mentioned is rare to be at Manchester.

I zoomed out and put it at 100x speed and waited for any of the Embraer planes to pop up. Once they did I just waited for one to be departing from Manchester. I checked the 4th and didn't see any leave Manchester and then the 9th I saw this one.

It probably took 5 minutes with this information, whereas before I was searching Manchester departures looking for the correct order of departing planes.
 
Yeah contained within a hangar though, not an outdoor attraction right by the runways.

Not dismissing it but given Mick's earlier post about MAN's efforts to reduce balloons from affecting the airport makes it seem unlikely they are regular feature at the visitors park.

Even so rules are often broken.
 
I'm having an issue with the party balloon.. Wouldn't the airport also shut down for that!? When I google party balloon shuts down airport the answer seems to be yes. The ground crew is right next to it.. they would take the balloon with them, not let it fly around. Now we can say it's bad timing that the balloon went airborn just when the ground crew was trying to take it with them. But then again, wouldn't they also ground all aircraft for something in the air? Specially if it's a mylar balloon that could become dangerous.

Edit: I asked a buddy that's working as ground crew at Schiphol. He couldn't tell what the procedure would be but he will ask around at work. He did agree that mylar can be dangerous.
 
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Hey all, thanks for the nice work! I made an account here to suggest to anyone who has the expertise and curiosity: Could somebody analyse the video with regards to the aerial movement of that orb? I.e does it move, or just hovering? There's a lot of movement in the video, but there's also about 3 reference points (close up raindrops, the orb, and the clouds), so for such a long video there should be some info on its relative speed or absence of it.

The reason I'm suggesting this: That "airport orb", whether real or fake, is the closest object I've found to a UAP I saw myself at a 50-100m distance in late September in Greece. It was hovering completely still about 20m above the sea and it also had optical "errors" (as in a thinning side on top and a somewhat blurry side) that made it something like a blobby installation art piece rather than a perfect sphere. So the "airport orb" could perhaps show a similar hovering behaviour.

PS. Unfortunately I don't have footage, it took me some good seconds before I concluded that what I'm looking at makes zero logical sense, and by the time I thought to take a picture it just disappeared with no trace. I had no interest or knowledge about UAP stuff beforehand and that was critical to my slow reaction (all I knew was the fantasy movies' saucer with the green guy piloting). I'm mentally stable and an academic doctor FWIW. Anyway, I hope that somebody will take a close nerdy look at the aerial behaviour of that "airport orb"! Peace
 
I contacted the press office at Manchester Airport this morning. This was the official response:
Hello Dave,



The incident in question didn't happen I'm afraid – we believe the pictures circulating on social media have been doctored.


Thanks

Mike

Michael Murphy-Pyle (he/him
Head of Media
Manchester Airport
Manchester Airport, Olympic House, Manchester, M90 1QX



Yeah, although we don't actually believe any balloon ever touched down. There's a video that shows something in the sky which could be real and could show some kind of balloon and then we suspect that the still photos of the object are fake and based on that!



Michael Murphy-Pyle (he/him)
Head of Media
Manchester Airport
Manchester Airport, Olympic House, Manchester, M90 1QX


A picture containing text, ax, vector graphicsDescription automatically generated






C2 - Internal​

From: Dave Beaty

Thanks Mike,


I was afraid of that. There is an individual claiming to work for the Airlines that said he was present at the event. It's possible there was just a mylar balloon or something that was turned into a big viral social media hoax. Using Flight Radar, another enterprising person located the date/time and aircraft present when the photos were taken as seen from the Airbus A320 of the taxiway in question.

Dave Beaty
 
And I have another question, we see it's raining in the video. Shouldn't we expect movement from the balloon? Specially with rain, that's not gonna fall symmetrical and apply equal pressure to counter out the energy. I would expect the balloon to bounce in every direction.
 
The claim is the video is legit but the pics are doctored that entails taking some pics of the empty ground for no reason, then later seeing a balloon in the sky and videoing it.
 
Dave Beaty said:
Using Flight Radar, another enterprising person located the date/time and aircraft present when the photos were taken as seen from the Airbus A320 of the taxiway in question.
Click to expand...
if you give them date and time, the tower may be able to check if the pilot's testimony about reporting the object is correct. I doubt they did that based on a "sometime in June" determination.
 
jarlrmai said:
The claim is the video is legit but the pics are doctored that entails taking some pics of the empty ground for no reason, then later seeing a balloon in the sky and videoing it.
Click to expand...
Tbf, still plausible explanation that would make it a well thought out hoax. Seeing the balloon, thinking hey I can use that and photoshop a UFO. Taking pictures because he knows he needs them in his plot, because just a video of a balloon wouldn't be so special. And after that start filming.
 
If historical tracking data is detailing down to minutes, and given that the exact shooting places have been identified, one can figure out how earlier the photos were taken. This, along analysing the object's behaviour while on air (from the video, as I described in my first post), would give revealing details.

Alternatively, reaching out to the airport with exact dates would give some low chance of acquiring information (but also a realistic chance of some people losing their jobs...)
 
Psytechnic said:
My method was looking at which days it rained in June as mentioned above in my post on Reddit but the most important part was filtering Flight Radar playback by KLM and the plane model (Embraer 195-E2) which another user on Reddit mentioned is rare to be at Manchester.

I zoomed out and put it at 100x speed and waited for any of the Embraer planes to pop up. Once they did I just waited for one to be departing from Manchester. I checked the 4th and didn't see any leave Manchester and then the 9th I saw this one.

It probably took 5 minutes with this information, whereas before I was searching Manchester departures looking for the correct order of departing planes.
Click to expand...
So someone knowing the KLM model from the photo and that it was an unusual plane model was the key.

Interesting, thanks.
 
wavy said:
Alternatively, reaching out to the airport with exact dates would give some low chance of acquiring information (but also a realistic chance of some people losing their jobs...)
Click to expand...
if the airline fires a pilot-not-flying (what laymen think of as "co-pilot") for taking pictures while 4th in line on the taxiway, they're dumb.
Also, the cockpit has jump seats, and the pictures could well have been taken by a deadheading colleague.
 
There are strict rules about this during flight operations of which taxing a fully fueled jet fill of passengers counts.
 
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