An investigation has been launched after several pilots spotted mysterious lights off the south-west coast of Ireland.
The incident happened on November 9 as the pilot from British Airways flight BA94 from Montreal to London, and a Virgin Airlines pilot of VS76 from Orlando to Manchester noticed the objects. Other unidentified pilots also saw the lights.
The pilot from BA94 queried air traffic controllers in Shannon if military exercises were taking place.
They said no, and that nothing was showing on the radar.
“OK. It was moving so fast,” said the BA pilot.
She said it came along the left-hand side of the plane before veering rapidly north.
“It was a bright light and then just disappeared at very high speed.”
The pilot on VS76, who also witnessed two bright lights, offered a possible explanation.
“Meteor or another object making some kind of re-entry – multiple objects following the same sort of trajectory – very bright from where we were.”
Both planes were said to be in high-level airspace – which is an altitude between 28,500ft and 42,000ft.
Airlive reports that the Irish Aviation Authority is “investigated under the normal confidential occurrence investigation process”.
