US military Hercules plane spotted doing laps over the Midlands

A US military transport plane was seen doing laps over Laois, Carlow, Wicklow, Kildare and Dublin.

The Lockheed Martin KC-130J Super Hercules plane was spotted over Laois and Carlow on Thursday, February 27, causing some excitement on social media with some speculating that 

The plane was left Cambridge in the UK en route for Boston in the USA when it appeared to show navigation problems over Ireland. This led to it engaging in multiple flights in a holding pattern over the five Leinster counties.

The plane flew over Kileshin, Graiguecullen and other parts of Laois to the north of Carlow town during the holding pattern. It is believed the flight was not connected to Ukraine's President Zelensky as some were speculating on social media.

The Flight Radar website showed that the plane left just before 1 pm.

The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft.

Carlow Weather's Alan O'Reily posted to his Facebook account writing:

"Plenty of plane spotters wondering about this US Navy plane OTIS83 doing loops over Carlow. "

"It’s not related to that visit and actually has navigation issues and is in holding pattern while troubleshooting!"