Fleet of small objects over Manchester—November 12th evening

Anyone else see anything odd over Manchester on Thursday evening (12th November) around 6 PM? My partner and I were driving on the M60 and saw what looked like maybe eight or nine small dark objects moving in formation across the sky, heading roughly northeast.

They were definitely not birds - the movement was too precise and coordinated. Not helicopters either (no noise, wrong shape). They moved at a steady pace, then suddenly accelerated upward and dispersed in different directions. The whole thing lasted maybe forty seconds.

We tried to get video on my mobile but the footage is useless - just dark blurs. Got a couple of stills that are slightly better but not brilliant. Tried ringing the airport to ask if they'd had any unusual reports, but obviously they weren't helpful.

I'm not one for conspiracy stuff, but the coordinated movement bothers me. That's not natural behaviour for any conventional aircraft. Has anyone else reported sightings around Manchester recently? Want to know if this is something that's been happening regularly.

That timeframe is interesting. There were apparently several UFO sightings across the Northwest on that evening - I saw mentions on Twitter (before it descended into complete chaos) of people in Liverpool and Cheshire reporting something similar. The coordinated movement is the key detail. Genuine aircraft don't manoeuvre as a unit unless they're in a very specific formation and there's a reason for it.

They moved at a steady pace, then suddenly accelerated upward and dispersed in different directions

The Manchester airport would absolutely never admit to anything unusual, so ringing them was worth a go but ultimately pointless. They're trained to tell civilian enquiries nothing. If it was military they'd definitely know what it was. If they're saying nothing, it's probably because they don't have an explanation either.

Post the still images even if they're blurry. Sometimes when a few people describe the same thing and there's even mediocre photographic evidence, it helps establish that something genuinely happened versus mass hysteria. Would be interesting to compare your images with any other footage from that evening.

The Northwest had loads of activity in the 1990s - Rendlesham's in East Anglia but that wasn't isolated. There's definitely something about this region that attracts aerial phenomena. This report fits a pattern that's been developing for decades.