A massive aircraft spotted circling above Liverpool and Wirral on Saturday was an RAF military transport plane.
The A400M can be used to carry up to 116 fully-equipped troops to remote airfields and operates to an altitude of 40,000 foot.
The plane was seen flying over Merseyside, and in particular Wirral and Liverpool, today, circling over the region for almost an hour between 11.45am and 12.41pm. Many people have contacted to ECHO and taken to social media to ask about the aircraft after spotting it in the skies.
Flight tracking websites show that it then headed further north before circling over Preston.
Typically based at Brize Norton, the plane is one of the biggest at the RAF's disposal.
As well as vehicles and troops, it has the capacity to carry a Chinook helicopter.
The Airbus model is typically referred to as Atlas by the RAF, which will have 22 in its fleet by the end of this year.
Just after 1.30pm the aircraft, call sign Ascot 476, skirted the Merseyside border as it passed just north of Southport before turning south over Chorley on a trajectory that took it above Warrington on what a appeared to be its return to base.
