Three airline pilots taking almost a thousand passengers across the northern Atlantic Ocean reported seeing unidentified flying objects off the west coast of Ireland.

Last Friday morning, a British Airways flight flying from Montreal to Heathrow and with the call sign Speedbird94, contacted air taffic control at Shannon airport to ask if there were military exercises taking place in the airspace because of a bright light that appeared to be moving very fast - possibly mach 2.

She told the tower, "It was moving so fast. It appeared on our left hand side and rapidly veered to the north.  We saw a bright light and it then just disappeared at a very high speed."

Shannon responded that there was nothing on the radar.

But then a second pilot, commanding a Virgin Airlines Boeing 747 with the callsign Virgin76, joined the conversation to say he saw similar lights that he thought could be meteors.  He also saw "two bright lights that seemed to bank over to the right and climb away at speed at least from our perspective".

The pilot of the third aircraft - a Norwegian Air 737 travelling from Stewart, New York, to Shannon - chimed in to say, "Glad it wasn't just me," impying taht he witnessed the same phenomenon as the other two.

The BA flight can carry 455 passengers, while the 787 has 214 seats.  The third aircraft is believed to be a a Norwegian Air 737 travelling from Stewart, New York, to Shannon, which can carry 200 passengers

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) is investigating the incident and will file a report.  "This report will be investigated under the normal confidential occurrance investigation process," said a spokesman, who added that it was unlikely to be aliens from another planet.  Of course, there's no way to completely discount it, either...