Jet2.com - sightseeing trip?
 

Playing with my flightradar app last night @ 22:00 and noticed a Jet2 737 that departed Manchester, flew direct to shetland and then did a couple of figure of eights over shetland @ 33000 ft. I didn't stay awake long enough to see where it headed then, probably back to Manchester - I'm guessing it was training or some sort of testing - just curious why they headed up north and the reason for the strange manoeuvres over shetland? There was also some lightning storms over the islands last night - could that be related to the flight?

Jet 2
 

Suspect it was a flight to see the Northern Lights which were probably

Active

I maybe wrong but I think that's what it would be

Almost certainly a Northern Lights trip.

There was a TOM one out of EXT a few nights ago aswell.

Figure of eight is to allow both sides to be able to look up during the turns, max AoB and very single light off. It's a good trip when the Aurora is active, but still interesting when it's not.

Looks like you could be right, thanks for the replies.

Jet 2 weird flights

auroraflights.co.uk

List of flights on that website, Manchester listed for 16th Feb.

There's another one up tonight, TCX out of BHX - currently manouvering S of the Faroes at 2300z.