Incident · 13 March 1997 · Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix Lights
Also known as Lights over Phoenix, Phoenix Lights 1997
Partly explained. The Maryland Air National Guard attributed the 10 p.m. lights to illumination flares dropped by Maryland Air National Guard A-10s at the Goldwater Range, and sceptics attribute the earlier formation to A-10s flying in formation; Gov. Fife Symington and Lt. Col. Richard French, who saw a large craft, reject both. (source)
On the evening of 13 March 1997 lights were reported across some 300 miles of Arizona and southern Nevada, from the Nevada line through Phoenix to the edge of Tucson. Many witnesses described a huge V- or carpenter's-square-shaped object with five lights passing slowly and silently overhead; later, around 10 p.m., a large number of people in the Phoenix area saw a row of brilliant lights hanging in the sky. Among the witnesses were the sitting governor, Fife Symington, a former Air Force officer and pilot, and Lt. Col. Richard French, who said the craft passed within a hundred yards of him.
The official and sceptical accounts split the evening in two. The Maryland Air National Guard attributed the 10 p.m. lights to slow-falling illumination flares from A-10s on a training exercise at the Barry M. Goldwater Range, visible from Phoenix and seeming to wink out behind the Sierra Estrella; a pilot confirmed in 2007 that he had dropped them. The Guard's statement came in July 1997; in May, Luke Air Force Base had told a FOIA requester that its own aircraft were not involved and that it had never blamed flares. The earlier formation has been attributed by sceptics and an amateur astronomer to A-10s flying in formation to Davis-Monthan. Symington, who at the time mocked the reports with a staffer in an alien costume, said in 2007 that he had seen the craft himself and that it "did not resemble any man-made object".
Sources: National Press Club (2007) · Citizen Hearing (2013) · Wikipedia
Facts and claims
- claimed Arizona's governor, Fife Symington, said he saw “a massive delta-shaped craft that silently navigated over the Peak uh area in North Phoenix”, with huge embedded lights on its leading edge, and that it was “certainly not high flares” because “I've never seen flares fly in formation”. — Fife Symington Source: National Press Club - November 12th, 2007. UFO Close Encounters at 1:18:04
- claimed Lt. Col. Richard French said a silent craft nearly a mile long passed “less than a hundred yards” from him in north Scottsdale, heading towards Tucson, and that the gunnery-flare explanation could not fit. — Richard French Source: Citizen Hearing 2013: Pilots & Aviation Experts at 1:11:28
- claimed There were two events: a formation of lights crossing the state from about 8 p.m., which an amateur astronomer watching through a telescope saw as individual airplanes, attributed to five Operation Snowbird A-10s returning to Davis-Monthan AFB; and a row of bright lights over Phoenix around 10 p.m., which the Air Force explained as LUU-2B/B flares dropped by Maryland Air National Guard A-10s over the Barry M. Goldwater Range. Source: en.wikipedia.org (archived)
- claimed A Maryland ANG pilot, Lt. Col. Ed Jones, confirmed in 2007 that he had flown one of the aircraft that dropped flares that night. Source: en.wikipedia.org (archived)
Connected files
Documents
- Luke AFB FOIA reply on the Phoenix Lights (1 May 1997) (subject of) — Luke AFB: no records, its aircraft were not involved, and its staff had not said the cause was aerial flares
People
- Fife Symington (witnesses)
- Richard French (witnesses)
Mentioned in this file
- Barry Goldwater (Person)
- National Press Club panel on UFOs and aviation safety (Event)
- Citizen Hearing on Disclosure (Hearing / briefing)
Mentioned in videos
Mentioned in documents and records
- The Clinton UFO Storybook: ET Politics in the White House
- UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record
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