2024 Manchester orb sightings

Ikwipedia

2024 Manchester orb sightings

In mid-to-late November 2024, a cluster of orb UAP observations was reported in and around Manchester, United Kingdom, including a widely circulated incident at Manchester Airport on or about 27 November 2024 in which a pilot reported seeing a small, blue, spherical object hovering near the tarmac in daylight before ascending vertically when approached by an airport vehicle — the cluster has come to be known as the 2024 Manchester orb sightings. The cluster occurred during a broader wave of unexplained aerial phenomena reported across the UK and over Royal Air Force bases in late 2024.

Manchester Airport tarmac orb (November 2024)

The most widely discussed sighting was reported by an unnamed pilot via a social-media post under the handle @captainbiggalow, with photographs and a short video allegedly showing a roughly car-sized blue spherical object descending vertically in approximately 15 knots of wind, hovering stationary a few feet above the runway, and then rising vertically as an operations vehicle approached. The post was published on or around 25 November 2024; the captured footage was reportedly taken several months earlier.

Manchester Airport released a statement disputing the authenticity of the imagery, saying it believed the material to be fabricated and that any genuine intrusion of that kind would have triggered a major-incident response, of which there was no record. Some commentators interpreted the airport's denial as itself notable given the apparent specificity of the imagery.

Cross-formation orb cluster

In addition to the airport-tarmac incident, observers across Greater Manchester reported a separate sighting in which approximately forty orbs were seen moving in a cross formation, led by a single notably bright orb. Greater Manchester is among the most-reported UFO regions in the United Kingdom by total documented sightings.

Context

The Manchester sightings occurred during a period of heightened public attention to UAP activity in the UK between late October and December 2024, including a reported cluster of triangular-formation lights observed over multiple RAF and US-operated air bases in eastern England. The period overlapped with broadly contemporaneous drone-and-UAP activity in the United States, and was discussed in connection with US Congressional UAP hearings held in the same window.

See also

References