Document · 1 May 1997
Luke AFB FOIA reply on the Phoenix Lights (1 May 1997)
Also known as Luke AFB Phoenix Lights letter
The U.S. Air Force's earliest written statement on the Phoenix Lights: a Freedom of Information Act reply from Luke Air Force Base, dated 1 May 1997, to the researcher John Greenewald (The Black Vault). Luke said it held no records, that its F-16s were not involved, and that its staff had not attributed the lights to flares.
The flare explanation came later: in July 1997 the Maryland Air National Guard said its A-10s had dropped illumination flares over the Barry M. Goldwater Range that night, which accounts for the later lights but not, by most accounts, the earlier formation. Our copy is The Black Vault's scan; the letter's text recognition is poor, so it is paraphrased here except for its closing line.
Source: Luke AFB, 56th Communications Squadron, 1 May 1997 (via The Black Vault)
Facts and claims
- documented Answering a Freedom of Information Act request, the records office of the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base wrote on 1 May 1997 that no records existed, that on the night of 13 March 1997 its aircraft were on normal training missions with no involvement in the lights seen over Phoenix, and that the base is a training base, not an air-defence base with aircraft on scramble status. Source: doc-luke-afb-foia-phoenix-1997.pdf
- documented The letter says the base's command post received telephone calls about the lights that night, and that its public-affairs staff, asked by a television programme, acknowledged that callers had reported lights but did not say the cause was aerial flares; it says the base did not know where the flare explanation had come from. It ends: “In summary, we have no records to give you”. Source: doc-luke-afb-foia-phoenix-1997.pdf
Connected files
Incidents
- Phoenix Lights (about) — Luke AFB: no records, its aircraft were not involved, and its staff had not said the cause was aerial flares
Mentioned in this file
- Barry Goldwater (Person)
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