A HUGE military plane was spotted circling over the borough yesterday afternoon.

At around 4pm on Monday, October 21, residents reported seeing a huge plane flying low above the borough.

With the plane attracting attention due to its height and loud noise, information from the flightradar24 website states that the plane was an RAF Boeing Globemaster III.

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Star reader Stephen Adams captured this picture of the Globemaster flying over HaydockStar reader Stephen Adams captured this picture of the Globemaster flying over Haydock (Image: Stephen Adams) Information on flight tracking websites shows that the plane left the RAF base at Brize Norton at 3.21pm and flew over Rainhill, Burtonwood, Warrington, Knowsley, St Helens, Haydock, and Newton-le-Willows as it circled around Cheshire and Merseyside.

Landing in Liverpool, the plane then flew up to Newcastle and back down to the Brize Norton base later that evening.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) confirmed that the plane was completing routine exercises, with the circling described as circuits and practice approaches to the John Lennon airport in Liverpool.

The Globemaster's flight path yesterdayThe Globemaster's flight path yesterday (Image: flightradar24) An MOD spokesperson said: "An RAF C-17 Globemaster, from RAF Brize Norton was completing a routine training sortie yesterday across Northern England, this included multiple approaches to and landings at  Liverpool and Newcastle airports.

"The RAF routinely uses differing airports all over the UK for training as they provide complex and differing challenges for our aircrew to ensure they are ready for global operations."