Looking at the positions & headings of the two aircraft, you can see that they are broadly on an East/North/East heading. At this time of year the Leonid Meteor shower becomes evident in the constellation of Virgo in the easterly sky shortly before dawn in the UK. I don't know the times of the sightings. in this instance but the meteors are characterised by their bright brief trails (because of the chemical composition of their sand grains- See wikipedia).
I surmise that the crews of those transatlantic flights whose eyesight would have been self adjusted to the low light levels in their respective cockpits were surprised and alarmed in part by the light show.
It never surprises me when the press/media hype up a story to ridiculous proportions. No radar tracks because the meteors don't normally "Squawk" and modern radar relies Synthetic processed displays. They burn up high in the mesosphere 75-100 Km above the earth. The ionisation trails can persist for some time (I wonder if these ionisation trails were visible on primary radars ?)
Edit:[OldLurker is correct] Sorry I missed your ref at first look at the posts. The times of the sightings was in the early morning before dawn. I missed that from the graphic.
CAT III
Last edited by Guest 112233; 13th Nov 2018 at 14:12.
Reason: old Lurker