With the coming of the
anniversary of the Phoenix Lights, I thought it time to revisit those
sightings. However, I think the discussion of the lights seen over Phoenix
actually masks the other, more significant sightings of a V-shaped or
triangular-shaped craft that was seen over much of Arizona that night. In this
discussion, I have eliminated the information about the lights to focus on that
craft. I have written about it at other times. Some of the information here is
based on my discussion of that craft with Mike Rogers, he of Travis Walton
abduction fame. You can listen to that discussion here:
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19005920
The sightings of an
object that could be described as a flying wing with lights in a “V” formation
were made first in Nevada rather than Arizona. Just before seven (Pacific
Standard Time) a man living in Henderson, just outside of Las Vegas, said that
he saw a “V”-shaped object that he thought was about the size of a Boeing 747
and that sounded like the rushing of wind. There were six lights on the leading
edge. He watched as it flew to the southeast, eventually disappearing over the
horizon.
 |
| A young Mike Rogers |
Had this been the only
sighting in that area that night, it would have been just another UFO report. A
little over an hour later, at 8:15 p.m., a former police officer said that he
and his family saw a cluster of lights in a “V” formation near Paulden, Arizona.
He described them as red-orange balls of light. He said that there were four
lights traveling together with a fifth bringing up the rear. He said that the
lights were in sight for about two minutes and that they made no sound. He
thought that each of the lights consisted of two parts. When he returned home,
he watched them through binoculars until they vanished over the horizon.
Others reported the UFO
as it flew from northern Arizona to the southern corner, a distance of about
two hundred miles in about thirty minutes, or at about 400 miles per hour. The
speed is not outside that of conventional aircraft, though the configuration
suggests something else.
Peter Davenport, and
his National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) received dozens of calls from witnesses
in Arizona that night. According to him:
One group of three witnesses,
located just north of Phoenix, reported seeing a huge, wedge-shaped craft with
five lights on is ventral surface pass overhead with an eerie “gliding” type of
flight. It coursed to the south and passed between two mountain peaks to the
south. The witnesses emphasized how huge the object was, blocking up to 70 – 90
degrees of the sky.
A second group of witnesses, a
mother and four daughters near the intersection of Indian School Road and 7th
Avenue [in Phoenix], were shocked to witness an object, shaped somewhat like a
sergeant’s stripes, approach from over Camelback Mountain to the north. They
report that it stopped directly above them, where it hovered for an estimated 5
minutes. They described how it filled at least 30 – 40 degrees of sky, and how
it exhibited a faint glow along its trailing edge. The witnesses felt they
could see individual features on the ventral surface of the object, and they
were certain that they were looking at a very large, solid object.
After
this point in the sighting, the facts are somewhat less clear to investigators.
It is known that at least one object continued generally to the south and
southeast, passing over the communities of Scottsdale, Glendale, and Gilbert.
One of the witnesses in Scottsdale, a former airline pilot with 13,700 hours of
flight time, reported seeing the object execute a distinct turn as it
approached his position on the ground. He noted that he witnessed many lights
on the object as it approached him, but that the number of lights appeared to
diminish as it got closer to overhead. Many other witnesses in those
communities reported seeing the object pass overhead as it made its way toward
the mountains to the south of Phoenix.
Other sightings occurred shortly afterward along Interstate 10 in the vicinity
of Casa Grande. One family of five, who were driving from Tucson to Phoenix,
reported that the object that passed over their station wagon was so large that
they could see one “wing tip” of the object out one side of their car, and the
other “wing tip” out the other side. They estimated they were driving toward
Phoenix at approximately 80 miles per hour, and they remained underneath the
object for between one and two minutes as it moved in the opposite direction.
They emphasized how incredibly huge the object appeared to be as it blocked out
the sky above their car.
Many witnessed, located throughout the Phoenix basin, allegedly continued to
witness objects and peculiar clusters of lights for several hours following the
initial sightings. One group of witnesses reported witnessing a large disc
streak to the west over Phoenix at very high speed. Others reported peculiar
orange “fireballs,” which appeared to hover in the sky even hours after the
initial sightings.
One of the more intriguing reports was submitted by a young man who claimed to
be an Airman in the Air Force, stationed at Luke Air Force Base, located to the
west of Phoenix in Litchfield Park. He telephoned the National UFO Reporting
Center at 3:20 a.m. on Friday, some eight hours after the sightings on the
previous night, and reported that two USAF F-15C fighters had been “scrambled”
from Luke AFB, and had intercepted one of the objects. Although the presence of
F-15’s could never be confirmed, the airman provided detailed information which
proved to be highly accurate, based on what investigators would reconstruct
from witnesses over subsequent weeks and months. Two days after his first
telephone call, the airman called to report that he had just been informed by
his commander that he was being transferred to an assignment in Greenland.
What all this
demonstrates is that there were more sightings than have been reported by most
of those commenting on the lights. More important, some of the explanations
offered in the days that followed did not account for the variety of sightings.
But the sightings
didn’t end; they just became more controversial and produced a number of video
tapes. These were lights that inspired the investigations as well as the media
attention because nothing excites the media like a good visual. One of the
tapes, shown repeatedly on local, national, and cable television, was analyzed
using an impressive looking array of computers and some very sophisticated
software. The conclusions drawn in those early investigations were that the
lights were not natural phenomena and did not exhibit any of the features of
manufactured lights. In other words, they were unique. Later investigation suggested
that flares were responsible for some of those sightings.
Quite naturally, the
Air Force was questioned about this and the official spokesman said, as usual,
the Air Force no longer investigates UFOs. Most people in Phoenix were unhappy
with that answer and believed that the Air Force was hiding the truth about
this.
Others, including
private researchers began to gather the stories of the lights that had moved
across Arizona, some of them believing that all the sightings were related.
There were those who claimed to have a triangular-shaped object and others who
claimed to have seen individual lights in a triangular or “V” shaped formation.
Some thought the lights were white, others red, and still others saw various
faded colors in the lights.
There is no radar data
available for any of this. According to those at Sky Harbor these high flights
would not be monitored on their radar. It would be controlled by FAA radar in
Albuquerque. If such a flight had been made it would have been represented by an
asterisk, but since they flight would have been far above their control zone,
they would not have been concerned about. Radar records would have been kept in
Albuquerque, but since no question about the radar displays was raised within
two weeks, the tapes were reused. The record has been lost.
It might also be said
that this is where things become confusing. There is good testimony that one
formation of lights was identified as airplanes. While those in the UFO
community were talking of multiple formations, it was reported by Steve Wilson
of The Arizona Republic, that they
might be right. He interviewed four people who saw the lights and whose
testimony suggests there was more than a single formation. He reported:
Dr. Bradley Evans, 47, is a clinical
psychiatrist from Tucson. He and his wife, Kris, were driving north on
Interstate 10 to a swimming meet in Tempe. They watched the lights for 20
minutes or so move slowly south in a diamond formation and pass over them at an
estimated 1,500 feet. Even then, with the car’s moon roof open, they heard not
a sound from the sky. He was ‘awed’ by the experience and has no idea what he
saw. Kris said she couldn’t explain it either and guesses it was ‘something
military.’
…Max Saracen, 34, is a real estate
consultant who lives in north Phoenix. He and his wife, Shala, were driving
west on Deer Valley Road when they saw a huge triangular craft. They pulled off
the road, got out and watched it pass overhead. “It was very spooky – this
gigantic ship blocking out the stars and silently creeping across the sky. I
don’t know of any aircraft with silent engines.
Adding to this was an
investigation by Arizona MUFON investigator Richard F. Motzer who studied “all
the videos I could find and interviewed other witnesses,” outlined his research
in the July 1997 (number 351) of the MUFON
Journal. He wrote:
The key to the solution was also
the biggest mystery. Why did all videos of 3-13-97 at 10:00 p.m. have a
different number of lights, different order of starting and decay, and shapes?
It was really dependent upon the
observation point of the witness in the Phoenix area and, most important, how
high their viewing point was. It turned out that the lights were not over
Phoenix, but near the Estrella Mountains to the southwest. This determination
was made after viewing all the video tapes and going to all but one of the
sites and shooting 35 mm film in daylight. Using the point marked by the pilot,
I drew a line from each of the sites where the Estrella lights were taped. On the
Rairden tape there are nine lights, but only eight lights on the Moon Valley
footage and just in the early part you see a light form briefly which then goes
out, but did it really? No, something must have blocked it out, but it was
still there in the Rairden footage. As the lights drifted downward, some lights
were blocked out by the many small peaks making up the Estrella range.
…What I wanted to find was footage
where a tripod was used and the zoom lens was left in one spot. To my surprise
there were several clips that met these specifications. What I did next was to
mark each segment the ground on a monitor and the ending position of each
light. When I ran the editor video deck in reverse, I could see each light rise
in altitude and drift to the right or to the left. In all the video clips the
results were the same. Just before each light went out, there was an increase
in the descent of each light.
What this suggested to
Motzer was that the lights were, in fact flares. The witnesses believe that the
lights were in front of the Estrella Mountains, but the video showed they were
not. He learned that the Army had been firing flares that night and that these
were parachute flares. The heat generated by the flare helps to slow the rate
of descent of the flares, but as the flare begins to die out, the rate of
descent increases. But there should be smoke visible and some of the witnesses
said they had seen no smoke. Motzer reported that the control tower crew at Sky
Harbor had seen the smoke.
With that, including
the confirmation by the Army National Guard they were firing flares that night,
that they were firing them at 8:30, 9:25 and 10:00 on March 13 and the evidence
on the tapes suggests flares, that seems to end the questions. Contrary to the
reports from Village Labs, the evidence available suggests flares as the most
logical and best solution here.
But this does not
explain the “V” formations that some people reported. Giving the timing of some
of the reports and given the length of time that some of the “V” formations
were visible to witnesses, it seems that there might have been more than a
single event. That would mean that both Stanley and Contry saw airplanes but
some of the others didn’t.
This seems to be where
the March 13 events remains. As I mentioned briefly, I believe the video tapes
show flares and some of the “V” formations are identified as aircraft, but
there isn’t a good explanation for the sightings of the large, V-shaped craft.
As I say, those sightings have been lost in the glare of the flares and the
discussion of the Phoenix Lights.
