Irish authorities have begun investigating the sighting of a UFO (unidentified flying object) off the coast after a British Airways pilot contacted Shannon air traffic control.  “Following reports from a small number of aircraft on Friday 9 November of unusual air activity the IAA has filed a report,” the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said.

It began at 6:47 am local time on Friday, November 9. That’s when a pilot spotted the UFO and made mention of it to Shannon air traffic control, saying that the UFO did not look like it was heading for a collision. The pilot, who was flying from the Canadian city of Montreal to Heathrow in London, said there was a “very bright light” and the object had come up along the left side of the aircraft before it “rapidly veered to the north”.  According to the BBC, the pilot wanted to know if there were military exercises in the area because there was something “moving so fast.”

“It came up on our left-hand side (rapidly veered) to the north, we saw a bright light and it just disappeared at a very high speed … we were just wondering. We didn’t think it was a likely collision course .. (just wondering) what it could be,” she said.

The air traffic controller said there were no such exercises. Then, another pilot from a Virgin Flight 76 plane joined in and suggested it might be a meteor or another object re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. He said his crew has seen “two bright lights at 11 o’clock (which) seemed to bank over to the right and then climb away at speed,” according to a report by CNN.

An aviation expert told Irish media that he thought that the UFO sighting was likely nothing more than a meteor. “In all probability, they were meteorites,” aviation journalist Gerry Byrne told the Irish Examiner. “It’s not uncommon for meteorites to come in at a low angle, a low trajectory into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

A spokesman for the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said that the incident of the UFO sighting will prompt an investigation. “Following reports from a small number of aircraft on Friday 9th November of unusual air activity the IAA has filed a report. This report will be investigated under the normal confidential occurrence investigation process,” the spokesman said.