On March 13, 1997, the Phoenix Lights were a progression of unexplained flying lights spotted over the southern territories of Arizona, as well as over Mexican province of Sonora. The sighting was widely reported and still remains unexplained.
Tim Ley, a witness to the Phoenix UFO sighting, drew a picture which was published in USA Today at the time. Thousands of individuals saw lights of various sorts between 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. MST, covering a 300-mile radius from the Nevada border to the outskirts of Tucson. A triangle configuration of lights spotted passing above the state, as well as a series of static lights seen in the Phoenix region.
The second group of lights was recognized as lights dropped by A-10 Warthog aircraft during training activities in Barry Goldwater Range located in the southwest Arizona, according to the US Air Force. Witnesses answered to have seen a huge UFO with five round lights, which might have been some sort of light-radiating motors. Fife Symington, who was the Arizona's lead representative at that point professed later that the sighting experienced was "supernatural."
UFO News: Timeline of the Phoenix Lights
Breaking the UFO news, reportedly started with a man who claimed seeing a V-shaped aircraft above Henderson, Nevada, around 6:55 p.m. It had the dimensions of a Boeing 747, and it sounded like the "rushing wind," and it had 6 lights on its front edge, according to him.
According to reports, the lights travelled from northwest to the southeast. After leaving his residence, an anonymous retired police officer from Arizona is said to have been the second individual to report the sighting. He claims to have seen a group of red or orange lights in the sky, consisting of 4 lights together and there was a fifth light behind them as he drove north.
Devon Lorenz and Jamie Lorenz, were resting on his veranda in the Prescott Valley. They observed a cluster of lights to their west-northwest. The lights formed a triangle pattern, however they were all red, with the exception of the light at the object's snout, which was clearly white. The object which had been watched via binoculars for perhaps two to three minutes, suddenly passed straight above the viewers, "banked to the right," and then vanished in the sky at night to the southeastern part of Prescott Valley. The object's altitude could not be established, although it was pretty low and made no sound.
Reports to the National UFO Reporting Center followed swiftly from the area of Prescott and Prescott Valley: "We observed five yellow-white lights in a "V" formation moving slowly from the northwest, across the sky to the northeast, then turn almost due south and continue until out of sight. The point of the "V" was in the direction of movement. The first three lights were in a fairly tight "V" while two of the lights were further back along the lines of the "V"'s legs.
UFO Evidence & Possible Explanations
Since the Phoenix Lights have been experienced by many people that day, there have been many attempts to explain the phenomenon. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, the reported movement of the V-Shaped light pattern corresponded with the direction of the wind on that day.
A possible hypothesis suggested that the flying objects were driven by wind and could have simply been balloons, sky lanterns or balloon-carried lights.
Many Ufologists question the official explanation, arguing that the V-Shaped pattern was simply to consistent throughout the sighting and the light emitted was too intense to originate from a gimmicky light source attached to a balloon.
Another possible explanation suggests, that the phenomenon originated from 'militray flares', namely by an A-10 Warhog Aircraft. Analysis of the recorded flares showed similarity of LUU-2B/B illumination flares that would fall into the luminosity range of flares observed on that day in Phoenix. A Maryland Air National Guard pilot confirmed to the media in 2007 that he had flown an aircraft in similar formation on March 3, 1997. A similar explanation that a 104th Fighter Squadron might have been responsible for the event has been published in The Arizona Republic in July 1997.
Alien Press Conference
Fife Symington III, governor of Arizona at that time, held a press conference where he brought up an aide on stage dressed in an alien costume as a light-hearted explanation for the "crafts of unknown origin". Although this was meant as a joke in good spirits, the citizens who witnessed the phoenix lights first hand did not take too kindly to this perceived mockery.
What do you think about the Phoenix Lights? Was this one really caused by flares? Is there better UFO evidence? 🛸
Like the article and drop me a comment below 👇🏻