Phoenix Lights facts for kids
The Phoenix Lights (also called the "Lights Over Phoenix") were a series of unexplained lights seen in the sky. Thousands of people saw them over the states of Arizona and Nevada on March 13, 1997.
People saw different kinds of lights between 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm. The sightings happened over an area of about 300 miles (480 km). This stretched from the Nevada border, through Phoenix, and almost to Tucson. Some people described seeing a huge V-shaped object with five bright lights. There were two main parts to the event: a triangle of lights moving across the state, and a group of lights that seemed to stay still over Phoenix.
Both sightings were later explained as military aircraft. They were part of "Operation Snowbird," a pilot training program. The first group of lights was identified as A-10 Thunderbolt II planes flying in formation. They were returning to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. The second group of lights was identified as flares dropped by other A-10 planes. These planes were doing training exercises at the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. Fife Symington, who was the governor of Arizona at the time, later said he saw the lights and described them as "otherworldly."
Similar lights were reported in 2007 and 2008. These were also explained as military flares or flares attached to balloons.
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What Happened in 1997?
On March 13, 1997, at 7:55 pm, a person in Henderson, Nevada, saw a large, V-shaped object. It was moving southeast. At 8:15 pm, a former police officer in Paulden, Arizona, saw a group of reddish-orange lights. They disappeared over the southern horizon. Soon after, lights were seen over the Prescott Valley, Arizona. Tim Ley and his family first saw the lights when they were about 65 miles (105 km) away.
At first, the lights looked like five separate lights in an arc shape. They seemed to be on top of something like a balloon. But the family soon realized the lights were moving closer. Over the next ten minutes, the lights came nearer. The distance between them grew, and they formed an upside-down V shape. When the lights seemed to be a couple of miles away, the family said they could see a shape. It looked like a 60-degree carpenter's square, with the five lights set into it. One light was at the front, and two were on each side.
The object with the lights seemed to move towards them. It was about 100 to 150 feet (30 to 46 m) above them. It moved so slowly that it looked like it was hovering silently. The object seemed to pass over their heads. It then went through a V-shaped opening in the mountains towards Piestewa Peak and the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Between 8:30 and 8:45 pm, people in Glendale (a suburb of Phoenix) saw the lights pass overhead. They were high enough to be partly hidden by thin clouds. An amateur astronomer named Mitch Stanley in Scottsdale, Arizona, also saw the high-altitude lights. He said they were "flying in formation" through a telescope. According to Stanley, they were clearly individual airplanes.
Around 10:00 pm that evening, many people in the Phoenix area reported seeing "a row of brilliant lights." They seemed to be hovering or slowly falling. Many photos and videos were taken. Because of this, writer Robert Sheaffer called it "perhaps the most widely witnessed UFO event in history."
What Were the Lights Really?
According to Robert Sheaffer, the "Phoenix Lights" event in 1997 was actually two separate events. Both were caused by "Operation Snowbird." This was a pilot training program run by the Air National Guard from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. Tucson astronomer and retired Air Force pilot James McGaha also looked into the sightings. He found that both were caused by A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft flying in formation.
The first event, which many people saw as a large "flying triangle," started around 8:00 pm. This was caused by five A-10 jets from Operation Snowbird. They were following a planned flight path and flying under visual flight rules. Rules for private planes do not apply to military aircraft. So, the A-10 formation showed steady lights, not blinking ones. The formation flew over Phoenix and continued to Tucson. They landed at Davis-Monthan AFB around 8:45 pm.
The second event, described as "a row of brilliant lights hovering in the sky, or slowly falling," started around 10:00 pm. This was due to a flare dropping exercise. Different A-10 jets from the Maryland Air National Guard were involved. They were also operating from Davis-Monthan AFB as part of Operation Snowbird. The U.S. Air Force explained that the exercise used slow-falling, long-burning LUU-2B/B illumination flares. These were dropped by four A-10 aircraft during a training exercise. This happened at the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in western Pima County, Arizona. The flares would have been visible in Phoenix. They seemed to hover because heat from the burning flares created a "balloon" effect on their parachutes. This slowed their fall. The lights then seemed to disappear as they fell behind the Sierra Estrella mountain range.
A Maryland ANG pilot, Lt. Col. Ed Jones, later confirmed he flew one of the planes that dropped flares that night. His squadron was at Davis-Monthan AFB for training. They flew training missions to the Goldwater Air Force Range that evening. A history book about the Maryland ANG from 2000 also said that the 104th Fighter Squadron was responsible for the event.
Later, comparisons were made between the Phoenix Lights and known military flare drops. These comparisons were shown on local TV stations. They showed how similar the two looked. Studies of the brightness of LUU-2B/B illumination flares showed that they would look like the lights seen from Phoenix.
Pictures and Videos
During the Phoenix event, many photos and videos were taken. They showed a series of lights appearing at regular times. The lights stayed on for a few moments and then went out. It was later found that mountains, which were not visible at night, partly blocked the view of the flares. This created the illusion that the lights appeared and disappeared one by one.
More Sightings Later On
Lights were reported again by people and recorded by the local Fox News TV station on February 6, 2007. Military officials and the FAA said these were flares dropped by F-16 "Fighting Falcon" planes. They were training at Luke Air Force Base.
On April 21, 2008, lights were reported over Phoenix again. These lights seemed to change from a square to a triangle shape. A local resident said that after the lights appeared, three jets were seen heading towards them. An official from Luke AFB said the U.S. Air Force had no activity in the area.
The next day, a Phoenix resident told a newspaper that the lights were just his neighbor releasing helium balloons with flares attached. A police helicopter confirmed this. The resident later said he had attached flares to helium balloons and released them from his backyard.
Movies About the Phoenix Lights
- The Phoenix Lights...We Are Not Alone Documentary, by Lynne D. Kitei, M.D. It features astronaut Edgar Mitchell and former Governor of Arizona Fife Symington.
- The Appearance of a Man, directed by Daniel Pace.
- Night Skies, a horror movie starring Jason Connery, A.J. Cook, and Ashley Peldon. It was released on DVD on January 23, 2007.
- They Came from Outer Space (also called Phoenix Lights The Movie), a science-fiction thriller.
- The Phoenix Incident, a science-fiction horror film released in 2015.
- Phoenix Forgotten, a found footage science-fiction horror film released in 2017.
See also
In Spanish: Luces de Phoenix para niños
- Black project
- Black triangle (UFO)
- Hessdalen lights
- Marfa lights
- Tinley Park Lights
- List of UFO sightings
- Rhodes UFO photographs, taken in Phoenix during the 1947 flying disc craze
