What happened during the largest UFO sighting in history?
The US government has confirmed UFOs are real, spurring new interest in past sightings. One historic event is the mass UFO sighting on March 13, 1997 in Phoenix, Arizona. Thousands witnessed strange lights in the night sky, making this the largest UFO sighting ever. But what exactly happened that night? This narrative examines the key events and theories surrounding the iconic “Phoenix Lights” case — the truth is still out there! 👽🔍❗
The Phoenix Lights: Reexamining the Most Massive UFO Sighting in History
On March 13th, 1997, thousands of eyewitnesses across Arizona watched in awe as a spectacular aerial phenomenon glided across the night sky. Known as the Phoenix Lights, this incident stands as perhaps the largest mass UFO sighting in history yet remains shrouded in mystery over 25 years later.
This narrative will re-examine key eyewitness accounts, assess the questionable government explanation of the event, and analyze why many researchers and witnesses still maintain the lights were part of a true unidentified flying object, not conventional aircraft.
March 13th, 1997: The Night the Skies Came Alive
The first sighting occurred at 7:55 PM in Henderson, Nevada, where a witness reported an enormous dark V-shape comprising six lights passing overhead. Just minutes later near Paulden, Arizona, a police officer spotted an apparent formation of five orange-red lights.
By 8:15 PM, the switchboards were lighting up at police departments and even Luke Air Force Base with thousands of frantic reports from Prescott to Tucson of a mind-bogglingly massive craft with bright lights slowly and silently gliding overhead toward Phoenix. Despite the avalanche of sightings, nothing registered on radar.
A City-Sized Craft Witnessed by Thousands
While descriptions varied somewhat, a consistent pattern emerged amongst the flood of reports telephoned in by shocked locals and even some airborne witnesses:
A solid, dark, triangular or boomerang-shaped craft easily a mile long, with a formation of between six to eight intensely bright lights stretching across its ventral surface, was observed slowly drifting among the mountainous terrain north of Phoenix, so inexplicably massive that it blotted out entire sections of the night sky in the testimonies of many witnesses.
Baffling Details Reported
Further baffling details were relayed by reliable observers. The craft was totally silent, lacking even the slightest hum of engines according to multiple eyewitness reports. Car drivers claimed one wingtip was clearly visible protruding from either side of their vehicle as the craft passed calmly overhead.
Some witnesses swore they could make out geometric hull features beneath the lights, although the darkness impeded discernment. The object appeared solid, emitting tremendously powerful light beams towards the ground at times, according to certain accounts.
Object Hovered Before Drifting South
One suburban mother and her four daughters told investigators the boomerang-shaped leviathan stopped and hovered directly overhead their neighborhood for approximately five minutes before slowly drifting southward. Its altitude was so low as to occupy an estimated 30–40 degrees of sky, by their account.
According to consistent sighting reports, the object proceeded on a southern trajectory over Phoenix proper, with eyewitnesses crowded at the city’s Indian School Park capturing brief footage of the puzzling lights passing above and behind local mountain peaks.
Bizarre Aerial Activity Persisted for Hours After
For hours after the initial flyover of the large primary craft, smaller luminous orbs and other unexplained aerial phenomena were continuously reported across the region.
One cluster of witnesses trained a high-power telescope on a disc-shaped object streaking at blinding velocity westward over Phoenix, while others studying the skies reported encountering roving formations of reddish or orange fireballs hovering eerily over the city. One man even claimed Luke AFB scrambled two F-15 fighters to intercept some unidentified object lingering in the area, although attempts to verify proved inconclusive.
The Infamous “Lights Over Phoenix” Video
The most iconic image associated with the Phoenix Lights stems from video shot by locals revealing an array of pinpoint luminosities hovering in a V-formation over central Phoenix before appearing to slowly sink behind the mountains and fade from view.
So captivated were Phoenicians by this display that traffic jammed as thousands pulled their vehicles over to marvel up at the dazzling aerial display. However, controversy surrounds these stationary lights. Let’s examine why next.
A Questionable Explanation: Dropped Military Flares
In the hours after initial mass sightings, the military made available a dubious explanation for the stationary formation of lights recorded over Phoenix but witnessed by relatively few.
They claimed a training exercise involved A-10 Warthogs dropping illuminating flares around 10PM that night, accounting for the recording of hovering lights which in fact slowly fell via parachute but appeared suspended due to an optical illusion.
Holes in the Official Story
This explanation leaves gaping holes. How could the reported gargantuan solid craft witnessed across hundreds of square miles be explained away as a few scattered parachute flares? Why would thousands of people, including police, pilots and even the governor, mistake flares for a single massive UFO?
And why were residents of sun-scorched Phoenix staring up at the sky and pulling over in droves to watch if what they saw was merely routine military flares and nothing unprecedented? As many skeptics have noted, entire elements of the mass sighting seem unaccounted for by the Pentagon’s hasty explanation.
High-Profile Witnesses Stand By Accounts
For instance, despite the flare story, several highly reputable Phoenix-area witnesses upheld their accounts in the days that followed, including Governor Fife Symington, himself a former USAF pilot familiar with military aircraft.
Symington openly dismissed the official flare explanation. He later stated unambiguously that he too had witnessed the enormous craft as it passed above his neighborhood, describing its dimensions as larger than an aircraft carrier and featuring a distinct row of recessed lights.
Meanwhile, pilots and air traffic controllers at Sky Harbor International Airport corroborated spotting an unknown light formation near the airport environs on the night in question.
Hollywood Witness Kurt Russell
Intriguingly, famed Hollywood actor and pilot Kurt Russell also confirmed spotting lights consistent with reports while making his final approach into Sky Harbor on the evening of March 13th. While Russell stressed the lights seemed innocuous to him, it does verify aerial phenomena were widely witnessed by all manner of locals that night.
Expert Analysis Deepens the Mystery
Some of the best evidence that the Phoenix Lights represented a tangible unknown comes from Bill Greiner, who recorded the infamous stationary light formation using the advanced radar dish camera atop the TV3 News studio tower.
Greiner’s triangulation calculations indicated the lights hovered over Squaw Peak at a distance of 10–20 miles from downtown Phoenix and spanned an apparent size of 15 miles from end to end when first spotted.
Whatever these lights were attached to in the sky, it was of truly mind-bending proportions based on Greiner’s expert assessment, which casts the military’s perfunctory flare explanation in deep doubt.
An Enduring Arizona Mystery
Why would the military provide what appears to be a hastily conceived explanation for only a fraction of events instead of a comprehensive account? Did they have something to hide? In the quarter century since that fateful evening, the truth remains elusive.
Thousands across Phoenix and the surrounding area witnessed an awe-inspiring event which changed their entire conception of the world overnight. Yet officially, it never happened. Those present know better and stand by what they saw. The Phoenix Lights remain a true unknown.
