Pilots Report Seeing 2 Unidentified Bright Objects Off Irish Coast, Irish Aviation Authority Investigates

Mimi Nguyen Ly
By Mimi Nguyen Ly
November 12, 2018Science & Tech
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The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) says it is investigating multiple sightings of unidentified bright objects reported by a number of pilots on three different planes on Nov. 9 off the southwest coast of Ireland.

According to audio communications recorded at 6:47 a.m. local time, a pilot of British Airways flight BAW94 had contacted air traffic control (ATC) to ask whether there were any military exercises taking place where her plane would be passing. The pilot was travelling from Montreal to Heathrow.

The Boeing 787 was passing over County Kerry at the time, according to the Irish Examiner.

The conversation recorded was as follows:

BAW94 Pilot: Is there any military traffic you’ve got right now?

Shannon Air Traffic Control (ATC): There’s nothing showing on either primary or secondary [radar].

BAW94 Pilot: Ok it was moving so fast. In fact we can no longer see it. But yeah, thank you.

Shannon ATC: Alongside you?

BAW94 Pilot: Just two come up on our left hand side and then rapidly veered to the north. We saw a bright light and then it disappeared at a very high speed. We were just wondering. We didn’t think it was a likely collision course. We were just wondering what that could’ve been.

Another sighting was reported by a Virgin Airlines pilot at the same time. The Boeing 747 flight VIR76X was heading from Orlando to Manchester and was southwest of BAW94 when the pilot also reported seeing two lights. He had reported what he saw to a different air traffic controller on another frequency.

VIR76X: A meter or another object making some kind of re-entry. Appears to be multiple objects following the same sort of trajectory. Very bright from where we were.

Shannon ATC: Ok that’s copied.

VIR76X: And Virgin 76 also saw that in our 11 o’clock position, two bright lights.

Shannon ATC: Roger that’s copied, thank you.

Another aircraft: Glad it wasn’t just me!

VIR76X: Very interesting, that one. … Virgin 76 I saw two bright lights, 11 ‘o’clock, seem to bank over to the right and then climb away at speed at least from our perspective.

Shannon ATC: Ok we’re passing that on now, thank you.

The other flight, Norwegian Air 737, was travelling from Stewart Airport in New York to Shannon Airport in Ireland.

Both the Virgin Airlines and the Norwegian Air flights were off the south-west coast of Ireland, heading east in high-level airspace at some 24,500 to 42,000 feet.

Shannon ATC then contacted BAW94 and said that another pilot had also reported seeing two bright lights. The controller received a response from a male pilot, who said: “The speed was astronomical, it was like Mach 2 or something.” Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound.

The Irish Aviation Authority said that it has filed a report on the sightings and has begun an internal investigation.

“Following reports from a small number of aircraft on Friday 9th November of unusual air activity, the IAA has filed a report,” a spokesperson said in a statement, sighted by the Irish Examiner.

“This report will be investigated under the normal confidential occurrence investigation process.”

You can listen to the pilots’ reports from Nov. 9 here from the 18 minute mark.

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