A Jet2 airliner came within 100ft of hitting a red toy balloon measuring up to 6ft long as it was coming in to land at Manchester Airport
The B737 jet carrying up to 189 passengers from Heraklion, Greece, was flying at around 175mph on Sept 11 when the close call happened at a height of around 2,600ft over Ashton under Lyne.
The UK Airprox Board, which investigates near misses, said the pilot spotted the mystery object and at first thought it was a large bird. But as it passed the tip of the left wing, it was seen to be “a long red cylindrical shaped balloon-like object” around 3ft to 6ft in length.
