Phoenix Lights

On the evening of March 13, 1997, a massive formation of lights — and what many witnesses described as a solid, structured craft — traversed the southwestern United States from Henderson, Nevada through Phoenix and the Sonoran Desert into Mexico, covering hundreds of miles over approximately three hours. Thousands of witnesses observed the event. The timeline is documented from Nevada at approximately 7:55 PM MST to Tucson at approximately 10:30 PM.

The most significant event occurred between approximately 8:00 and 8:30 PM over Phoenix itself, when witnesses including physicians, pilots, law enforcement officers, and Governor Fife Symington III described a massive V-shaped or boomerang-shaped craft of extraordinary size moving silently across the city. Multiple witnesses independently described the object blocking background stars, establishing it as a solid structure rather than a formation of lights. Estimated size ranged from 600 feet to over a mile in wingspan. The craft moved at low altitude — estimated by witnesses at 1,000 to 3,000 feet — at speeds between 20 and 100 mph, making no sound whatsoever.

A separate event at approximately 10:00 PM involved a stationary formation of lights south of Phoenix near the Estrella Mountains. This event was later attributed by the Arizona National Guard to illumination flares dropped by A-10 Warthog aircraft from Barry M. Goldwater Range during a training exercise. Skeptics have applied this explanation to the entire Phoenix Lights event; proponents note the timeline discrepancy between the two events — they occurred nearly two hours apart — and that witness descriptions of the earlier craft differ fundamentally from the stationary flare formation.

Governor Symington held a press conference the day after the event in which he produced an aide in an alien costume, publicly mocking the sightings. He later stated this was done deliberately to defuse public alarm. In 2007, Symington publicly reversed his position, stating: '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. Other people saw it, responsible people. I don't know why people would ridicule it.' He confirmed he had personally witnessed the first formation of lights and found no conventional explanation.