The Phoenix Lights: How and Why Thousands Swore to See a UFO in 1997

Twenty-four years later it remains an unexplained event, a thorn in the normal flow of everyday life. What happened that night of March 13, 1997 in the night sky of America and Mexico, when thousands of really people observed something mysterious for 3 whole hours?

As “Phoenix Lights”, the incident went down in history and then in collective oblivion. Was it mass hysteria? It really was ΑΤΙΑ; Or did someone set up a well-designed prank? Before falling into the consciousness of the world public, the episode was the most massive UFO report ever recorded.

No answer was ever given. Two distinct events are related to the incident: a triangular formation of lights seen passing over Arizona and a series of stationary lights observed in the greater Phoenix area.

The American Air Force at some point he unofficially gave an explanation for the second incident and that was it. An interpretation that obviously could not calm people down. Or awe.

The authenticity of the event has since been the subject of intense controversy, without, however, a decisive victory for either side. Ή an explanation that satisfies the testimonies of eyewitnesses.

So what happened that day that terrified so many thousands of people?

The “Phoenix Lights”

The sun had just set on March 13, 1997, when the people of Nevada, Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora turned their gaze to the night sky. From 7: 30-10: 30 in the evening, the anxious residents called the relevant police stations en masse, looking for an answer.

Everyone mentioned some moving lights in the sky, but also – even more impressive – a mysterious “V” shaped boat that seemed to be anchored over the sky in Phoenix, Arizona.

The boat, according to the testimonies, was really huge, compared to the size of plenty of American football fields. And while the lights finally remained steady in the sky, the huge UFO moved south.

Passenger pilots alerted the control towers to what they saw with their own eyes, but it was nowhere to be seen on their radar. And then, as suddenly as they appeared in heaven, they mysteriously disappeared. The lights went out and the boat moved south.

The lights only appeared on Phoenix. The triangular object, however, became visible at a distance of at least 500 kilometers, from the borders of Nevada, throughout Arizona and eventually to Mexico.

The US government has never explained the mysterious lights. At one point he appeared to be throwing the ball to the Air Force. Her staff unofficially recognized, as we said, the lights that stood in the sky for 3 hours a series of flares dropped fighter jets as part of an exercise in the southwest of the state.

The interpretation of the UFO was clearly more difficult. Citizens reported that the object was definitely compact, as it hid much of the starry sky as it passed over towns and villages.

To some government officials, it was just a series of fighter jets flying in formation. And they said that off the record.

Even more impressive was perhaps the “ass” of the governor of Arizona, Fife Symington. Who initially amused the concerns of the residents, making fun of the incident, later revealed however that he was also a witness to all these phenomena.

He called them “spooky” now…

How they suddenly appeared in the sky

The first report on “Phoenix Lights” comes from Nevada at 6:55 p.m. A man called Henderson County police to report what he saw, a V-shaped object. He said it was as big as one Boeing 747 and saw 6 lights on it.

The object was directed southeast and the next recordings followed its course. A police officer in an Arizona settlement reported at 8:15 p.m. how he saw a swarm of orange lights. He saw them with his binoculars and clearly noticed that they were 5 in number. Until they disappeared.

Two minutes later, the Arizona Prescott Police Department was flooded with panicked phone calls. People saw white and red lights flying in the sky.

By now it had become clear that these were two different phenomena. All the testimonies said the same for each of them, whether we are talking about the 5 lights or the boat.

In the Prescott but they both saw them. The boat covered the sky, appeared very close to the ground. He did not even make any noise. After a while, it started moving southeast.

According to the US National UFO Reporting Center, which recorded in detail the testimonies of the people, the boat had really huge dimensions. The more moderate ones talked about “3 stadiums [αμερικανικού] football “and others even said for 1 mile (1.6 km).

Perhaps most striking of all were the similar descriptions that came out of the mouths of so many people. No one doubted its “V” shape, just others were talking about 5 lights on it, others about 6 and some others about 7. There were no deviations in its orbit, they were moving from northwest to southeast.

“We have nothing so big,” an eyewitness told Phoenix Radio Station, “It was absolutely silent. “It was as big as the center of Prescott, it completely hid the stars.”

Dana Valentine, 31, saw it over his backyard that night. He ran home and called his father, an aeronautical engineer. Together they watched the mysterious boat fly at 500 feet and eventually disappear on the horizon.

“We could see the outline of a mass behind them lights, but you could not see the mass. I do not know exactly what it was, but I know it is not a technology that the public has ever heard of. “

“It was impressive and a little scary,” said Tim Ley, who got out of his car to see the spectacle. “It was so big and so weird. You could not really see it object. “All you could see was the outline, like something hiding the stars.”

Bill Grava, who worked at the Phoenix International Airport control tower for 12 years and was on duty that night, called what his eyes saw “strange, inexplicable.” They went and found him years later and he said again “I do not know what to think, I have no idea what it was”.

If one reads the testimonies of so many people from different areas where the phenomenon became visible, one cannot help but be impressed by the similarity of the descriptions…

Trying to get the issue under the rug

After what happened, it was Frances Barwood of Phoenix City Council who first demanded an answer for the eerie event.

Since we are talking about 1997, when not everyone had a cell phone in their hand, images and video footage exist exclusively for the lights above the Phoenix and not for the spacecraft.

The images that have seen the light of day with the “V” shaped boat are all made based on the testimonies. However, the videos from handheld cameras of the time with the lights over the Phoenix are authentic and have been included in the Discovery Channel and History Channel documentaries about the event.

Returning to Barwood, she was the first to demand a public response. The local government contacted the US Air Force, but received a strange response. That they could not talk about the incident because of Project Blue Book, the secret US military program to assess alien threats.

The only evil? How the UFO research and analysis program that was born after the incident in Roswell in 1947 was officially closed in 1969! With government mouths shut, people were forced to turn to independent agencies and organizations to find out what happened.

The outcry, however, never stopped. And here comes the unprosecuted Governor Symington…

The ridicule

The governor of Arizona stated from the first moment that he had not even heard about the incident. Under suffocating pressure, however, Fife Symington was forced to plan one Press conference for 19 June 1997.

There he came out and said that they have in their hands an alien from the incident, which he presented on stage. It was his right hand man, Jay Heiler, dressed in an alien costume and handcuffed.

“This was done just to tell you guys that you are serious,” the governor said, and reporters erupted in applause and cheers. The parody essentially put the issue under the rug.

For a decade for sure. Because you see in 2007 the same man revealed in numerous interviews that he too had witnessed the event, and now he believed it to be “real”.

For the tragic press conference, he said now that he did everything to calm down his citizens, who were “on the verge of hysteria”.

“I am pilot“I know almost every machine that flies,” he told NBC in 2007, “it was bigger than anything I have ever seen. It remains a great mystery. And others saw it, responsible people. I do not know why some people pretend it. It was huge. It seemed completely eerie. “

And finally;

Going back to 1997, the governor’s funny press conference all he did was shut the world up. Distinguished scientists and prominent members of the local community, such as Dr. Brad Evans and Dr. Lynne Kitei, decided not to speak in public.

“So many people were afraid to speak out so as not to be expelled,” Kitei said. “Other people, like us, pushed it away. There was nothing to share. We did not talk to anyone for months. “

The 1997 incident began to be discussed again in 2020, when the Pentagon released the three videos with the “unexplained aerial phenomena”.

The “Phoenix Lights” became an uncomfortable paradox again…