A large grey military plane was yesterday spotted circling Glasgow for the second time in a week.

But although the sighting may have triggered ominous thoughts in some observers' minds, there is a perfectly peaceful explanation for the sightings. 

The plane was seen over Glasgow Airport, where its flightpath prompted speculation that it was having trouble landing. It was observed looping around the airport several times. 

"There's an Air Force plane that has passed my house several times in a loop and has tried to land at least twice so far from two different directions," one Twitter user wrote. 

"The runway here is short and that plane is huge, so hopefully it's not got a gear problem."

Some people believed they had seen several planes, but it's likely to have only been one. 

Another Twitter user added: "I just tracked an RAF airbus A400 from Brize Norton to Glasgow.

"It did four landing takeoff practise runs then went onto Aberdeen where it did two.

"Now on its way back south. Did you see four planes or one plane four times?"

The plane launched from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and was carrying out a training mission. 

We spoke to Glasgow Airport and found that it was doing exercises which involved preparing to land and then changing course, or "touch and go" manoeuvres in which it lands quickly and then takes off immediately. 

RAF Brize Norton tweeted: "This evening, our A400M aircraft will be operating in the vicinity of Glasgow, Aberdeen and East Midlands, whilst engaged in essential training.

"These are necessary, routine, flights and not connected with RAF support to the UK's fight against coronavirus."