There are several locations around the world known for alleged alien activity, including America's own Area 51.

But while Ireland has long been connected to mysterious little green men, it's not exactly a hotbed of UFO sightings.

Still, just this week there were several sightings of "very bright" UFOs reported by at least four pilots.

The unusual experience began in the early morning of November 9, when several pilots started seeing strange lights and objects in the sky above Ireland.

One pilot actually asked Shannon's air traffic control if there was military activity nearby, after seeing something move "so fast" through the sky.

"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," said one pilot.

"We didn't think it was a likely collision course... (just wondering) what it could be."

Another pilot said his flight crew had seen "two bright lights" which "seemed to bank over to the right and then climb away at speed."

Yet another pilot said the object saw was moving unbelievably fast, "like Mach 2 or something." If that pilot's guess was correct, what he saw was moving at the speed of a jet fighter.

"Glad I'm not the only one," one pilot laughed about the other sightings.

A witness on the ground even managed to capture footage of a mysterious object as it passed overhead during the sightings.

Donal Brady from Cork, Ireland told Today FM that he pulled his phone out after noticing "what appeared to be a very bright object in the sky."

He said that the mysterious light he saw "wasn't moving like a plane, it was hovering and moving sideways."

While Brady insists he's not "a UFO hunter or anything like that," he says he has no idea what he captured on video.

"I'll leave that to the experts."

But the pilots - and aviation authorities - were immediately skeptical of claims that aliens were involved.

It was a "meteor or some kind of object re-entry," guessed one pilot. And aviation journalist Gerry Byrne also blamed a meteor for the sightings.

"It's not uncommon for meteorites to come in at a low angle, a low trajectory into the Earth's atmosphere," he told the Irish Examiner.

The Irish Aviation authority said they would be investigating the case "under the normal confidential occurrence investigation process."

So until we learn more, keep watching the skies!

[H/T: CNN, Today FM]

Do you believe that the pilots saw a UFO? Or was it just space junk?