It's some sort of airport support vehicle. VIsible on flight tracker now, looks like its been up the runways and so on during lulls lin movements.

Unexpected An-124 into Man this evening.

It must have been the one that was heading to Hahn above, which looks as if it made an approach to HHN and then headed at least as far as Leicester before I stopped watching it.

There was a 727 (G-OSRA) around the NW at the same time.

If it's been doing work on the runways it doesn't need to wait for gaps in movements as Heathrow is once again only using one of its two runways for the time being.

This was actually 16-02801 which is a US Army C-12 (Beech King Air).

It couldn't land at Hahn due to fog, so diverted to Manchester.

Ah hah! Thanks Big Eric!

Just out of interest, why would the AN-124 not be able to divert to somewhere closer to Hahn (within a few hundred miles) assuming that the fog was wider spread ? Manchester seems a bit far to me, especially as Doncaster and EMA are both 24hrs if I recall correctly. Perhaps the crew have fond memories of a past visit to MAN and some local hostelry ;-)

They were going to be in for a disappointment then!

My sister rang me on Monday morning and brightly asked "are you in the Wetherspoons drinking coffee?" "Er, bit difficult at the moment..." Well, she does live in (almost) rural Norfolk...

Interestingly, it's still current on the US civil register, as N250AA.

I'm not sure that it's technically a C-12. It was built as a B300C (King Air 350C), in the same batch as the half-dozen UC-12W's, but of course the latter is a USMC designation rather than an Army one.

Must be very fond memories as the AN-124 is still at Manchester..

Apparently an AN-12 (UR-CKL) just flew over me at 22000' and I didn't hear it...

Another memory from the days of yaw... JAT AN-12s had a weekly freight flight out of Heathrow, Saturdays I think it was. Used to growl out over Purley when 28 (as was) was in use... Early 80s? Fred Olsen Electra Saturday mornings as well, though they didn't depart via Purley...

I saw that AN-12 directly overhead and scarcely heard it - and I was outside far from traffic or other noise.

USAF C-130J just went over as well, did see it and heard it - fairly quiet though it had just begun descending in Mildenhall.

I DID hear it and saw it, from deepest Surrey and also heard the USAF C-130 which when looking on the tracker was a good distance away, but in a turn, so perhaps that amplified the soundwave somehow. Nice to see the AN-12's out and about again, they must be a good old age by now. The one in question was going from LUX to SNN. Perhaps it's heading over the pond ?

King Air 350 N789LL operated by US Special Operations Command on its way south over Cheshire from Prestwick. Also a Romanian AF C-27J heading NE across Belgium...

Also, a TBM700 N751CM following behind after having hopped from Colorado in 3 stops. Those SOC pilots are made of strong stuff ;-)

Another AN-12 lumbered over Surrey late this morning, the droning very obvious above the noise of daily life. Malta to Shannon and thence Atlantic ?

The Belarus Rubystar An-12 which I heard over Glasgow a few weeks ago went Vitry-Keflavik-Gander-Bermuda-Havana.
I presumed it wasn't equipped or permitted to take a more direct route..

Yeah I certainly heard the one this morning, lovely deep drone straight overhead. Too much cloud, didn't recognise the reg as a regular round these parts...