WAS UFO IN KERRY SKIES REALLY A METEOR?[
ASTRONOMY and aviation experts now think that a UFO spotted over Kerry by three airline pilots might have been a meteor falling to earth.
Following the twin Star Wars movie shoots in south and west Kerry, the county is no stranger to ‘extraterrestrial’ visitors but something far more unusual unfolded high above the Kingdom in the early hours of last Friday morning.
The bizarre incident began at 6.47am on Friday as a British Airways flight from Montreal to Heathrow passed over Kerry.
As the 787 jet flew across the county, an extremely fast moving bright object appeared to the left of the plane.
This led the startled pilot to contact Shannon Air Traffic Control (ATC) to ask if there were any military exercises taking place in the area.
A recording of their exchange was released on Friday.
Shannon ATC said that there were no exercises taking place and that there was “nothing showing on either primary or secondary radar”.
The BA pilot, who sounds taken aback by what she had seen, responds and describes what she had just observed.
“Ok. It was moving so fast” she said, adding that the “very bright light” came up along the left of the airliner then “rapidly veered to the north and disappeared at a very high speed”.
The unidentified object was also spotted by two other airliners which were flying just off the Kerry coast. They also contacted Shannon ATC to report their sightings.
A Virgin Airlines pilot described seeing multiple “very bright objects following the same trajectory” that then climbed away at a high speed.
The third pilot, on a Norwegian Airlines plane, reported a bright object travelling at an “astronomical” speed.
One of the stunned pilots, who was part of the four way conversation with Shannon ATC, expressed relief that he wasn’t imagining things.
“I’m glad it wasn’t just me” he said.
The Irish Aviation Authority issued a statement confirming that they have launched an investigation into an incident of “unusual air activity” which the body said had been reported by “a small number of aircraft”.
While alleged UFO sightings are common – particularly in the United States – what makes this incident so unusual is that the UFO was spotted by three flight crews and reported separately by three highly experienced commercial airline pilots.
In the wake of the sighting, several leading international astronomy and aviation experts have argued that the UFO was, in all likelihood, a meteor that was burning up after it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
This has been contested by hundreds of UFO enthusiasts – posting on various internet forums and websites – who argue that the pilots’ description of the UFO changing course and “veering” or “climbing” away at high speed rules out the possibility of a meteor.
The explanation for Friday’s remarkable sighting is something we will likely never know. Keep watching those skies.