Phoenix, Arizona

33°27′N, 112°04′W

Maricopa County, Arizona — capital of Arizona, Salt River Valley

[from the public record]

33.4500, -112.0667 · view on OpenStreetMap →

What's documented

Phoenix is the capital of Arizona. On the evening of 13 March 1997, a series of widely witnessed luminous phenomena moved across Arizona from the Nevada line to the Mexican border. Two distinct event sequences were involved: a triangular formation of lights moving slowly south, and a separate set of stationary lights hovering over the Estrella Mountains southwest of Phoenix around 10:00 PM. Witnesses included Arizona Governor Fife Symington, who held a press conference mocking the event before acknowledging, in 2007, that he had personally witnessed it.

Notable & intriguing

Arizona Governor Fife Symington III held a press conference on 19 June 1997 at which an aide dressed in an alien costume was ‘arrested’ for the Phoenix Lights, ridiculing eyewitness accounts. On 18 March 2007, Symington wrote in the Daily Courier that he had been a witness himself: ‘I’m a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I’ve ever seen. It remains a great mystery.’

Daily Courier (Prescott, AZ), 18 March 2007, op-ed by Fife Symington
The U.S. Air Force in July 1997 attributed one of the two Phoenix Lights events to A-10 Warthogs of the Maryland Air National Guard dropping flares over the Goldwater Range during Operation Snowbird. The flare explanation has been confirmed for the 10 PM stationary lights; the earlier triangular formation is unexplained.

USAF Public Affairs statement, July 1997; Luke AFB Operation Snowbird flight log
Air-traffic control radar at Luke AFB did not detect the formation. The Western Air Defense Sector’s NORAD logs for the evening were not retained, contrary to standing record-retention policy.

FOIA response to researcher Richard Motzer, 1999

Public-record items already documented about this subject. Folklore is labelled. Sources cited where the specificity warrants it.

Suggested watching

The Phoenix Lights — We Are Not Alone (2005) documentary

dir. Lynne D. Kitei · Prime / various · 1h 35m

Dr. Lynne Kitei's first-person account of the March 13 1997 event. Includes her own video of the stationary lights, witness interviews, and Governor Fife Symington's eventual public retraction of his 1997 dismissal.

good first watch — Kitei is a careful witness with the receipts
UFOs Over Phoenix (2007) episode

dir. various · Discovery / various · 44m

Discovery Channel reconstruction with Frances Barwood, Symington, and air-traffic-control material. Engages with the Maryland Air National Guard A-10 flare-drop explanation for the second event of the evening.

even-handed on the two-events-not-one distinction

Public-record imagery

Phoenix, Arizona — the city skyline, looking across the Salt River Valley. Wikipedia Commons · Public domain · 2005

Phoenix from Camelback Mountain at dusk. The 13 March 1997 'Phoenix Lights' incident involved two distinct events: a V-formation of lights passing over the city around 8 PM, and a second event around 10 PM that the USAF later attributed to A-10 flare drops. Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · dconvertini · Take

Downtown Phoenix at night. Governor Fife Symington publicly mocked the sightings at the time but admitted in 2007 that he himself had seen 'a massive, delta-shaped craft' silently over the Phoenix sky that night. Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Alan Stark · Take

South Mountain rising over Phoenix neighborhoods. Witnesses reported the V-formation tracked from Henderson, Nevada south through Prescott, Phoenix, and onward to Tucson — a 300-mile silent transit, almost too long to be coordinated aircraft. Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Alisonking · 2011