Thousands of civilians reported seeing a massive V-shaped formation of lights moving silently over Arizona skies.
The Phoenix Lights refers to a series of mass UFO sightings reported on the evening of March 13, 1997, across Arizona and parts of Nevada. The event is widely considered one of the most famous and well-documented Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) cases in history, involving thousands of witnesses including Kurt Russell and then-Governor Fife Symington.
The incident consists of two distinct events:
The V-Shape Formation: Between 7:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., witnesses reported a massive, silent, V-shaped craft moving slowly from Nevada through Arizona. This object was described as solid and large enough to block out stars, with no official explanation accepted for this specific sighting.
The Stationary Lights: Around 10:00 p.m., a row of bright, reddish-orange lights appeared to hover over the Sierra Estrella mountain range southwest of Phoenix. These lights were filmed by many witnesses and were later identified as illumination flares dropped by Air National Guard A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft during Operation Snowbird training exercises.
While the later lights have a conventional military explanation, the V-shaped formation remains unexplained, with many witnesses and researchers disputing that military flares account for the structured, silent craft observed earlier in the evening. Governor Symington initially mocked the sightings in a press conference but later admitted in 2007 that he personally witnessed something he described as "otherworldly."
| Date: | 1997-03-13 |
| Location: | Phoenix, Arizona |
| Country: | United States |
| Category: | Civilian |
| Credibility: | Medium |