CONSPIRACY CORNER: The Pheonix Lights

The Phoenix Lights

On the evening of 13th March 1997 at approximately 10pm an event occurred in the skies over Phoenix, Arizona that defied logic.

Similar phenomenon had been reported and indeed filmed in the years preceding this event, such as in 1992 when a retired Army Colonel managed to capture it on tape. But on this particular evening in 1997, thousands of Arizona residents were witness to this huge boomerang-shaped object which filled the sky overhead. All the witnesses reported to have seen a ‘gunmetal black’ object which had five lights arranged in a V shape – two on each side and one at the point of the ‘V’. They watched in amazement as it glided over the city, making no noise whatsoever before its wings seemed to retract and it accelerated off at an unbelievable speed for something so large, over the mountain range in the distance.

The first report was from a police officer in Paulden, Arizona and over the next 100 or so minutes various reports came in from parts of Arizona, Nevada and just across the US/Mexico border in the north eastern state of Sonora. Not only was it witnessed by thousands on the ground, it was also reported by at least one airline pilot.

Governor Fife Symington originally promised a full and thorough investigation even going so far as to say that they would find out if it was indeed a UFO, later at a press conference it was announced they had apprehended the ‘accused’. They then proceeded to make a mockery of not only the investigation but also of the thousands of witnesses who saw a UFO that night. They brought out a man dressed as a ‘Martian’ complete with a crude rubber mock up of the classic alien head and eyes and wearing a silver, foil-like suit (this can be seen in the clip below).

However a few years later the Governor, came out and said that he in fact had also seen the lights in the sky that night and when asked why he did what he did at the press conference he said that he only took part in that because he was getting no answers from anyone in his investigation, the air force, the FAA, the national guard, all said there was no explanation for the phenomenon that occurred that night. He said the press conference stunt was an attempt to cut through the hysteria that had been generated by this occurrence, an attempt which ultimately backfired (below).

One Phoenix councilwoman – Frances Barwood – pushed for a proper investigation and even went so far as to ask John McCain, the Arizona State Senator at that time, to look into it. Amazingly John McCain replied to Ms Barwoods request personally. He had written to her to inform her that he got a reply from the US Air Force that stated;

‘The Air Force no longer conducts UFO investigations’.

McCain went back and demanded an investigation and the US Air Force eventually replied that the lights in the sky were caused by military flares being dropped by A-10 Warthogs. Obviously this explanation holds no water with the residents of Phoenix, Tucson and Scottsdale who are convinced that they saw a UFO that night, a UFO so huge that it actually blocked out the stars in the night sky.

There have been two other reported sightings of this UFO in the years since 1997 but even now, more than 16 years after the original event, mystery and controversy still surrounds the case of the Phoenix Lights.

Was it military aircraft flying in formation? Was it flares dropped from planes on manoeuvres? Some sceptics say it was a B2 Bomber, but one witness claimed that it would probably have been possible to have 40 B2 bombers on one wing of the UFO such was the size of it.

One thing is for certain though, with the authorities – the Federal Aviation Authority and the US Air Force, not to mention the airports in the region, all drawing a blank as to what was in the Phoenix sky that night, all we have is speculation, but ask any of the thousands that witnessed it and they will tell you that they know what they saw…