Within Arizona UFOs
What Really Happened During the Phoenix Lights?
The Phoenix Lights remain Arizona's defining UFO case because witness reports, flare evidence and public mistrust still collide.
On this page
- The moving V and the later lights
- Military flares and the range explanation
- Why witnesses still disagree
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Introduction
The Phoenix Lights were not one clean, single UFO sighting. They were a night of overlapping reports across Arizona on 13 March 1997, with two main strands: an earlier moving V-shaped pattern seen by witnesses from northern Arizona towards Phoenix, and later bright lights over the south-western horizon that were widely filmed. The best-supported explanation for the later lights is military illumination flares dropped over the Barry M. Goldwater Range. The earlier V remains more disputed, though sceptical investigators argue it was a formation of military aircraft. The case matters because it is Arizona’s defining UFO event: a rare mix of mass witnesses, video, military activity, official mishandling, and lasting public mistrust. Deseret News [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer
The moving V and the later lights were probably different events
The most useful way to understand the Phoenix Lights is to separate the night into phases. Many popular retellings merge everything into one giant craft over Phoenix, but the evidence points to a more complicated sequence. Reports began well before the most famous videos. Witnesses described lights moving across the state, often in a V, triangle, boomerang, wedge or “carpenter’s square” shape. Later, at around 10 pm, a row of bright lights appeared to hover or slowly drop south-west of Phoenix, and those became the images most people now associate with the case. [NUFORC]nuforc.orgOpen source on nuforc.org.
That distinction changes the evidential picture. The later lights have a strong conventional explanation because their appearance, timing and location match military flare activity. The earlier moving formation is harder for many witnesses to accept as ordinary because some people reported a huge silent structure, not just points of light. Still, a report from amateur astronomer Mitch Stanley, who viewed the earlier formation through a telescope, is a key sceptical anchor: he said the lights resolved into individual aircraft, not one solid object. [Tucson Weekly]tucsonweekly.comTucson Weekly Answering The "Arizona Question" (July 3Tucson Weekly Answering The "Arizona Question" (July 3
The V-shaped reports also varied. Some witnesses saw separate lights in formation; others perceived a single massive craft blocking out stars or passing silently overhead. That variation does not make the witnesses foolish or dishonest. It is exactly what can happen when people view distant moving lights at night without clear scale, altitude or reference points. A formation of aircraft can look like one object if the lights appear fixed relative to each other, especially against a dark desert sky.
Why the flare explanation fits the later Phoenix lights
The strongest explanation for the famous row of stationary-looking lights is that they were high-intensity illumination flares dropped by A-10 aircraft during military training. In July 1997, military officials said Maryland Air National Guard A-10s had been flying training missions over the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, about 60 miles south-west of Phoenix, and dropping flares from around 15,000 feet. The flares descended slowly by parachute and illuminated a wide area. [Deseret News]deseret.comNews Flares, not UFOs, caused light show, military saysNews Flares, not UFOs, caused light show, military says
That account matches several visible features of the later videos. Parachute flares can appear to hang in place when they are far away, descend slowly, and then wink out as they burn out or pass behind terrain. LUU-2 style aircraft illumination flares are designed for night illumination, producing intense light for roughly four to five minutes while suspended from a parachute. [GlobalSecurity]globalsecurity.orgGlobal Security LUU-2 FlareGlobal Security LUU-2 Flare
The geography also matters. The Barry M. Goldwater Range is not a random patch of desert; it is a major military training area in south-western Arizona. Luke Air Force Base’s 56th Range Management Office oversees Barry M. Goldwater Range East and Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field, supporting fighter-pilot training and related operations. Modern official imagery still shows aircraft firing flares over the range, underlining that flare use is normal in that airspace. [Luke Air Force Base]luke.af.milLuke Air Force Base56th Range Management OfficeLuke Air Force Base56th Range Management Office
For many sceptical investigators, the later event is therefore not a mystery in the narrow evidential sense. It has an identified military activity, a plausible mechanism, a direction on the horizon, and visual behaviour consistent with descending illumination flares. The uncertainty lies less in whether flares can explain those later lights and more in why the explanation was slow, fragmented and poorly trusted by the public.
Why witnesses still disagree about the V
The earlier moving V is the heart of the continuing dispute. People who saw that part of the night often argue that flares cannot explain what they witnessed, and on that point they are right: flares dropped south-west of Phoenix around 10 pm do not explain an earlier formation moving across Arizona. The real question is whether the earlier V was a huge craft or a formation of aircraft.
Sceptical accounts point to Operation Snowbird, a winter Air National Guard training programme operating out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. Robert Sheaffer’s Skeptical Inquirer analysis argues that the Phoenix Lights consisted of two unrelated incidents linked by the same broad military training context: earlier A-10 aircraft returning from Nellis Air Force Base, followed later by a separate flare drop by other A-10s. He also notes that the aircraft were using formation lights rather than ordinary blinking collision lights, which could make them look unfamiliar to witnesses on the ground. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer
The Mitch Stanley telescope observation is important because it gives the aircraft explanation an observational detail that ordinary naked-eye accounts lack. Stanley told Tucson Weekly that the lights split into aircraft-like forms under magnification, with lights on the undersides of wings, and later reporting connected his description with A-10 type aircraft. [Tucson Weekly]tucsonweekly.comTucson Weekly Answering The "Arizona Question" (July 3Tucson Weekly Answering The "Arizona Question" (July 3
But witness disagreement remains understandable. A person standing in a neighbourhood, looking up at silent lights crossing the sky, would not have Stanley’s magnified view. If the aircraft were high, distant, moving together and hard to hear, the brain could connect the lights into a single shape. Conversely, people who felt they saw a solid dark object overhead are not easily persuaded by an aircraft-formation explanation, especially when the official response at the time seemed dismissive.
The official response weakened trust
The Phoenix Lights became more than a sighting because the public response was mishandled. In June 1997, Arizona Governor Fife Symington held a press conference and used an aide dressed as an alien as a joke, saying officials had found who was responsible. Years later, Symington said he had seen something himself that night and described it as large, unexplained and unlike aircraft he knew as a pilot. [Wikipedia]WikipediaPhoenix LightsPhoenix Lights
That reversal deepened public suspicion. To believers, Symington’s later statement looked like confirmation that the original official tone had minimised a serious event. To sceptics, it showed how memory, politics and public mythology can reshape a case over time. Either way, it is central to why the Phoenix Lights stayed alive in Arizona’s UFO culture. The incident was not simply “lights in the sky”; it became a story about whether officials took ordinary witnesses seriously.
Local media also played a major role. Early reporting, later anniversary coverage, documentaries and UFO conference culture kept the event in circulation. Some coverage clarified the two-event structure, while other retellings blurred it, making the flare explanation appear weaker than it is. Tony Ortega, who covered the case critically, argued that the persistent confusion comes from combining the earlier V-shaped aircraft formation and the later flare drop into one blended mystery. [The Underground Bunker]tonyortega.orgSource details in endnotes.
What the videos prove, and what they do not
The Phoenix Lights are often treated as unusually strong because there was video. That is partly fair: the later lights were widely recorded, so this is not a case built only on rumours or a single witness. But video of distant night lights has limits. Without reliable distance, altitude, compass direction and time synchronisation, a row of bright points does not by itself prove a structured craft.
For the later event, video arguably helps the conventional explanation. Many recordings show bright lights that appear in a line, hold position or descend slowly, and disappear one by one. That is compatible with flares dropping behind terrain or burning out at different moments. Sceptical analysis has also argued that mountains invisible in the night view helped create the impression that the lights were vanishing mysteriously in sequence. [Wikipedia]WikipediaPhoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, Arizona
The videos do not resolve the earlier V in the same way. The key evidence there is witness testimony, a small number of recordings, and later analysis of aircraft activity. This is why careful accounts should not say simply “the Phoenix Lights were flares” or “the Phoenix Lights were a giant UFO”. The stronger conclusion is narrower: the filmed later lights are well explained by flares, while the earlier moving formation is disputed but has a plausible aircraft-formation explanation.
Why the case still matters in Arizona UFO history
The Phoenix Lights endure because they sit at the intersection of several Arizona-specific factors: desert visibility, major military training ranges, a large metropolitan audience, and a public already primed by UFO interest during the 1990s. March 1997 was also a period when many people were outside looking at the bright Comet Hale-Bopp, increasing the number of skywatchers who might notice unusual aircraft or flares. [Skeptical Inquirer]skepticalinquirer.orgSkeptical Inquirer
Within Arizona’s UFO history, the case remains useful because it teaches three lessons at once. First, mass witnessing is not the same as a single shared event; thousands of people can see different parts of a complicated night. Second, military explanations can be valid and still fail publicly if they arrive late or are delivered dismissively. Third, eyewitness sincerity and mistaken interpretation can coexist.
The most balanced reading is therefore not that the Phoenix Lights were “solved” in every witness’s mind, nor that they prove an extraordinary craft crossed Arizona. The later lights have a strong flare explanation. The earlier V has a credible aircraft-formation explanation, strengthened by the telescope account, but it remains the part that many witnesses dispute most strongly. The case survives because its evidence is not equally strong in every direction: the flares explain a lot, the aircraft explanation explains more than many popular retellings admit, and the human memory of that night still refuses to settle into a single simple story.
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Endnotes
-
Source: deseret.com
Title: News Flares, not UFOs, caused light show, military says
Link: https://www.deseret.com/1997/7/26/19325702/flares-not-ufos-caused-light-show-military-says/ -
Source: skepticalinquirer.org
Title: Skeptical Inquirer
Link: https://skepticalinquirer.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/07/SI-JA-16-16.pdf -
Source: nuforc.org
Link: https://nuforc.org/phoenix/ -
Source: globalsecurity.org
Title: Global Security LUU-2 Flare
Link: https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/luu2.htm -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Phoenix Lights
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Phoenix, Arizona
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix%2C_Arizona -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: National UFO Reporting Center
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_UFO_Reporting_Center -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Phoenix (mythology)
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_%28mythology%29 -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_M._Goldwater_Air_Force_Range -
Source: nuforc.org
Link: https://nuforc.org/ -
Source: nuforc.org
Link: https://nuforc.org/subndx/?id=lAZ -
Source: phoenix.gov
Link: https://www.phoenix.gov/ -
Source: youtube.com
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJjd4O1eUzoSource snippet
The Phoenix Lights - 17 years later...
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Source: youtube.com
Title: The Phoenix Lights
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SUJTh6Hs-I -
Source: tucsonweekly.com
Title: Tucson Weekly Answering The “Arizona Question” (July 3
Link: https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/07-03-97/curr1.htm -
Source: luke.af.mil
Title: Luke Air Force Base56th Range Management Office
Link: https://www.luke.af.mil/Units/56th-Range-Management-Office/ -
Source: tonyortega.org
Link: https://tonyortega.org/the-phoenix-lights-20-years-later-still-the-same-set-of-planes-and-flares-over-arizona/ -
Source: abcnews.com
Link: https://abcnews.com/Technology/phoenix-ufo-mystery-solved-lights-high-school-football/story?id=14884994 -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/BarryMGoldwaterRangeEast/ -
Source: skepticalinquirer.org
Link: https://skepticalinquirer.org/volume/no-5-vol-38/ -
Source: skepticalinquirer.org
Link: https://skepticalinquirer.org/volume/no-2-vol-21/ -
Source: azmemory.azlibrary.gov
Link: https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/nodes/view/269347 -
Source: stampaday.wordpress.com
Title: the phoenix lights
Link: https://stampaday.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/the-phoenix-lights/ -
Source: kids.kiddle.co
Title: Phoenix lights
Link: https://kids.kiddle.co/Phoenix_lights -
Source: thisunexplaineduniverse.com
Title: phoenix lights
Link: https://www.thisunexplaineduniverse.com/articles/phoenix-lights -
Source: planeandpilotmag.com
Title: the phoenix lights
Link: https://planeandpilotmag.com/the-phoenix-lights/
Additional References
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Source: youtube.com
Title: The Phoenix Lights: Unravelling the Greatest UFO Mystery in History
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=977heKmAXW0Source snippet
Phoenix Lights and UFO Sightings Investigative Documentary - PART 2 | Mysteries Decoded | The CW...
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Source: youtube.com
Title: Phoenix Lights and UFO Sightings Investigative Documentary
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfzducPDYjMSource snippet
THE PHOENIX LIGHTS: Military activity or paranormal orbs?...
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Source: youtube.com
Title: THE PHOENIX LIGHTS: Military activity or paranormal orbs?
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dacStPcgf6MSource snippet
New revelations, the truth takes flight | UFOS OVER PHOENIX: CONFESSIONS OF A 911 OPERATOR...
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Source: instagram.com
Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DV1STuJkUZA/ -
Source: towndock.net
Link: https://towndock.net/files/LUU_Parachute_Factsheet.pdf -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/TorquayCoastguard/videos/para-illumination-flares/452879819909709/ -
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/BarryMGoldwaterRangeEast/mentions/ -
Source: clui.org
Link: https://clui.org/ludb/site/barry-m-goldwater-range -
Source: alamy.com
Link: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/barry-m-goldwater-range.html -
Source: reddit.com
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1gtyrde/close_up_parachute_flare_theyre_not_ufos/
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