Phoenix Lights

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The Phoenix Lights, sometimes referred to as "The Lights Over Phoenix", is the popular name given to a series of optical phenomena that took place in the sky over the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada on March 13, 1997. Lights of varying descriptions were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. UFO proponents claimed they were part of aircraft unknown to man, but the USAF identified them as flares dropped by A-10 Warthog aircraft which were on training exercises.

Contents

[edit] Timecourse

[edit] Initial reports

At about 18:55 PST, (19:55 MST), a man reported seeing a V-shaped object above Henderson, Nevada. He said it was about the "size of a (Boeing) 747", sounded like "rushing wind" [1], and had six lights on its leading edge. The lights reportedly traversed northwest to the southeast.

An unidentified former police officer from Paulden, Arizona is also claimed to have been the next person to report a sighting after leaving his house at about 20:15 MST. He reputedly saw a cluster of reddish or orange lights in the sky, comprising four lights together and a fifth light trailing them, and through binoculars watched the lights until they disappeared south over the horizon.

[edit] Prescott and Prescott Valley

Lights were also reportedly seen in the areas of Prescott and Prescott Valley. At approximately 20:17 p.m. MST, callers began reporting seeing four or five bright white lights passing overhead, a triangular-shaped object with a grouping of lights along the sides. It was reported to be a single craft made up five objects, each equal in size to a 747, flying in a perfectly locked formation and moving silently through the sky. Prescott Valley witnesses said the object passed directly overhead and that the object was definitely solid because it blocked out much of the starry sky as it passed over.

One observer was standing outside with his wife and sons in Prescott Valley, when they noticed a cluster of lights to in the west-northwest of their position. The lights formed a triangular pattern, but all of them appeared to be red, with the exception of the light at the nose of the object, which was distinctly white. The object, or objects, which had been observed for approximately 2-3 minutes with binoculars, then passed directly overhead the observers, they were seen to "bank to the right," and they then disappeared in the night sky to the southeast of Prescott Valley.[2]

The National UFO Reporting Center received the following report from the Presscot area:

   
“
 While doing astrophotography I 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. During the NW-NE transit one of the trailing lights moved up and joined the three and then dropped back to the trailing position. I estimated the three ;ight "V" to cover about 0.5 degrees of sky and the whole group of five lights to cover about 1 degree of sky.[3]
   
”

[edit] Dewey

At the town of Dewey, 10 miles south of Prescott, Arizona, six people saw a large cluster of lights while driving northbound on Highway 69. The five adults and a youth stopped their car to observe the lights which were directly overhead when they exited the car. The lights appeared to hover for several minutes. The caller, who was an experienced flyer, said that the object was so large that he could clench his fist and hold it at arm's length and still not completely cover the light. He estimated the object to be not over 1,000 feet above the ground and that it was moving at a considerably slower pace than an aircraft would fly. Calls to the UFO centre were also received from Chino Valley, Tempe, and Glendale.

[edit] First Sighting From Phoenix

Tim Ley and his wife Bobbi, his son Hal and his grandson Damien Turnidge first saw the lights of the craft when they were above Prescott Valley about 65 miles away from them. At first they appeared to them as 5 separate and clearly distinct lights in an arc shape like they were on top of a balloon, but then soon realised that they were moving towards them. Over the next ten or so minutes they kept coming closer and the distance between the lights got further apart and then they took on the shape of an upside down V. Eventually when a couple of miles away they were able to make out a shape that looked like a carpenter's square with the 5 lights set into it with one at the front and two on each side. Soon this "craft" was coming right down the street where they lived about 100 to 150 feet above them traveling so slowly it appeared to hover and not making a sound. It then passed over their heads and went on to pass through a V opening in the peaks of the mountain range where they lived and went straight towards Squaw Peak Mountain and beyond toward the direction of Sky Harbor Airport. [4]

[edit] Arriving in Phoenix

The lights hovered for about 4-5 minutes over the intersection of Indian School Road and 7th Avenue. At this point many widely publicized videos and photographs were taken. One amateur astronomer stated that he believed the objects were "a formation of planes and nothing at all out of the ordinary". [5] Bill Greiner, a cement driver hauling a load down a mountain north of Phoenix, had a different opinion of the event. He stated:

I'll never be the same. Before this, if anybody had told me they saw a UFO, I would've said, 'Yeah, and I believe in the tooth fairy'. Now I've got a whole new view. I may be just a dumb truck driver, but I've seen something that don't belong here."[5]

[edit] After Phoenix

The lights moved southeast towards Tucson, following Interstate 10 at slow speed. Reports during this period had the lights as being amber in color. A driver on the Interstate noted that a large object hovered over the car, which was moving at about 65 mph.

The object was next reported over Oracle. Here, it was described as having a reddish-orange color. Witnesses claimed that the object split up and each of the bright lights started moving in a separate direction along the edges of Tucson.

The final report came from a young man in the Kingston area who stopped his car at a payphone to report the incident. "[The] young man, en route to Los Angeles, called from a phone booth to report having seen a large and bizarre cluster of lights moving slowly in the northern sky".[5]

[edit] Videotapes, still photos

Once in a while, documentary TV channels such as the Discovery Channel, the History Channel air videotapes and still pictures of the UFOs shot by locals as part of their UFO Documentary programming. Some pictures show Flying Triangles, classic "lights in the sky", and one videotape shows what appears to be a giant UFO appearing over Phoenix, Arizona itself. The programming also airs both the views of UFO believers and skeptics, and witness testimonials.

[edit] Radio reports

On the Coast To Coast radio show known as The Art Bell Show, broadcast some time after the lights were reported, people claimed to have seen the lights. Other radio shows that are paranormal oriented, such as Jeff Rense's have also taken calls of this nature.

[edit] Skepticism

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Skeptics agree with the USAF explanation that the lights were simply slow falling, long burning flares dropped by an A-10 Warthog aircraft on a training exercise over Luke Air Force Base. Proponents of the spacecraft theory stated that the lights were over the city and not beyond the mountain where the Luke AFB was located. However, detailed analysis of the falling flares shows that they were actually beyond the mountain, as investigators discovered the lights vanished in line with the outline of the mountain. An investigation by Luke AFB itself also came to this conclusion and declared the case solved.

A video illustrating this was broadcast on a special on Fox Television stations about a year after the event. A copy of the original video was used in coordination with a video shot in the daytime from the exact same location. The two videos were merged into one on a frame by frame basis, so that the landmarks were always perfectly aligned. This allowed analysis of the lights regarding their apparent height above the mountain, and it was easily seen that the lights vanished in line with the outline of the mountain.

[edit] Movie

A horror movie called Night Skies, starring Jason Connery, A.J. Cook and Ashley Peldon, features the lights. It's USA DVD premiere is 23 January 2007.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Summary of “Phoenix Lights” Event.
  2. ^ http://www.nuforc.org/CB970313.html
  3. ^ http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/002/S02076.html
  4. ^ Tim Ley Recounts The Phoenix Lights. Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
  5. ^ a b c Phoenix Lights.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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