STRANGE silver orbs seen flying over North Wales have sparked debate.

The objects were captured by a former pilot on his iPhone on a sunny afternoon earlier this month.

The witness was out in the garden with his family in Oakenholt in Flintshire when he saw several objects moving high in the sky above him.

After viewing the footage frame by frame, he was amazed to see several objects moving independently.

As a former pilot working out of Liverpool, he said he was familiar with the skies above North Wales and he had never seen anything like them.

He estimated that the objects were between 8,000 to 10,000 feet up.

He said: "I've never seen anything like it before. When I first saw it I thought maybe it's one of the Google balloons, but having watched them you can see they aren't balloons.

"I've flown around this area for many years and I've never seen anything like it.

On closer inspection of the footage, what at first appear to be white flashes, seem to be silver balls or orbs.

But with no objects in the footage to use for reference, it is impossible to pinpoint the size of the objects or how far away they are.

The witness added: "You can see three, they are in a triangle formation with one to the left, another at the top right, and another at the bottom. If you look at the one in the top right you'll see it fly off to the right while the others remain relatively stationary. If you watch it frame by frame carefully, you'll see at the very bottom one fly in, do an arc, and fly out again. You'll also see one fly in from the top left and go across. There's a lot in it.

"I could see three of them at the time, it was only afterwards when I looked back when I saw all that was going on."

He added: "I used to fly aircraft out of Liverpool and I was certain that what I was seeing wasn't any aircraft I'd seen before."

"To eliminate camera shake, there is one that moves around a little bit but stays relatively stationary while the others move around it.

"They are moving so fast that when you watch them in real time it looks like a white flash but when you watch it second by second you can see a white ball flying across the screen."

The video was shared with British UFO expert Jason Gleave who uses the latest computer technology to examine footage.

He said the objects do not appear to be birds or any known commercial aircraft.

It is not the only recent sighting of an unexplained object in the skies above North Wales, of a black disc in the skies about North Wales was also spotted in Chester.

On September 24, a 60 year-old man described seeing a black disc in the sky above the former Brymbo steelworks. He said he watched it fly from the direction of Chirk towards Hawarden and Broughton.

Last year, the UK's answer to the X-Files were published for the first time, revealing North Wales to be a hotbed for UFO sightings.

Claimed sightings of UFOs received by a now-defunct "UFO Desk" unit within the RAF have been published on the UK Government's website.

The RAF took the decision to wind up the unit in 2009, after concluding that in more than 50 years, no received report had ever disclosed any evidence of a potential threat.

The most recent reports received by the RAF have been placed online following a Freedom of Information Act request.

The final documented reports from 2009 record 626 sightings in the UK, including reports made in Anglesey, Flintshire, Wrexham, Gwynedd and Denbighshire.

Two investigators, dubbed the UK's Mulder and Scully, believe that North Wales - particularly the skies above the Dee Estuary and coastline - is a hotbed for UFO activity,

West Yorkshire investigator Russ Kellett, whose close encounters have featured in several national newspapers, has teamed up with Flintshire's Lynne Murphy, who has researched ghostly encounters in Wepre Woods as well as having an interest in UFOs.

They have teamed up to investigate UFO and paranormal encounters, including famous incidents like the Berwyn Mountains "ufo crash landings" dubbed the British Roswell or Roswelsh.

Find out more at www.ufo.uk.net