Phoenix, Arizona (4-21-2008)
From The Black Vault Encyclopedia Project
Newspaper Articles Regarding This Case
Mysterious Lights Spotted Over Phoenix (AP)
Associated Press - April 22, 2008, 12:34 PM PDT
Red colored lights that formed a square and then a triangle were seen floating over north Phoenix late Monday, a sight reminiscent of an unexplained 1997 sighting that has become part of the area's lore.
There was no immediate word where they came from.
The Air Force said the lights weren't from any of their flight operations and officials at Deer Valley airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport could not explain it.
The lights were visible for about 13 minutes around 8 p.m. Monday.
A Luke Air Force Base official said the base wasn't flying any aircraft in the sky Monday night and that the lights are not part of any Air Force activities.
KSAZ-TV, a local Fox affiliate in Phoenix, reported that officials from Phoenix Deer Valley Airport saw the lights approximately 4 miles south of the airport and that the lights were rising as they watched.
Airport officials said the lights were not from any aircraft at that airport.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that air traffic controllers at Sky Harbor also witnessed the lights, but do not know the cause.
On March 13, 1997, thousands of residents reported seeing a mile-wide, v-shaped formation of lights over the Phoenix area. In that case, the lights appeared about 7:30 p.m. and lasted until 10:30 p.m.
Mystery lights reported over Phoenix
Could the strange lights over Phoenix last night have been sky lanterns?
Sky lanterns are big balloon-looking things that have a flame at the bottom and slowly rise like a helium balloon. people use them for celebrations.
The company's web site says they last for up to 20 minutes, rise about a mile high and can travel for miles.
People are looking for an explanation for mysterious red lights that appeared in the north Phoenix sky Monday night, reminiscent of a similar event 11 years ago.
Dozens of listeners called News/Talk 92-3 KTAR just after 8 p.m. reporting they were watching the four mystery lights.
``From my position, it looked like they were just hanging, not moving at all," said one man, who called 92-3's ``Gaydos After Dark." He said he ``absolutely" saw something.
A woman caller said, ``It looked like four red tower lights, but it was pretty high up in the air. I called my husband and he said, `Get home, what's wrong with you?'"
A man in north Phoenix told CBS-5: ``They were about 3,000 feet high, approximately. They looked as though they were kind of hovering or floating from west to east, very slowly. They were up there for 15 or 20 minutes."
Callers said the lights appeared at one point in a straight line, and also formed a square and then a triangle. They were visible for about 15 minutes around 8 p.m. before heading to the east and disappearing.
Deer Valley Airport, which was the closest air field to the lights, had no explanation for them. Neither did Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport or Luke Air Force Base, which said it had no jets flying at the time.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said, ``A lot of people were reporting seeing some strange lights in the sky around Phoenix last night. Air traffic controllers at the control tower at Sky Harbor saw them. But, we have no idea what they were."
Gregor added, tongue-in-cheek, ``It could be aliens coming down to save us from ourselves, you never know. The only thing I do know is if they were coming down, they weren't talking to air traffic controllers."
On March 13, 1997, thousands of people reported seeing a v-shaped formation of lights over north Phoenix. They lasted about three hours. Some described them as forming a carpenter's square.
Among those who saw the lights in 1997 was former Gov. Fife Symington, who initially played down the episode. However, he said last year that he believes the lights came from ``crafts of unknown origin" and, ``It remains a great mystery."
Unexplained lights spotted above Valley; were they flares? (ABC, Channel 15)
PHOENIX -- Strange lights appeared above the Valley sky in formation on Monday night.
Witnesses said the lights formed a vertical line, then a diamond shape, followed by a u-shape. The lights reportedly moved from side to side and upward before disappearing one by one.
ABC15's Jon DuPre talked to one north Phoenix man late Tuesday afternoon who said he watched his neighbor launch four helium balloons with flares attached to them right before the mysterious lights were spotted.
He said he believed this could be the source of Monday night's sightings.
ABC15 knocked on the door and talked to that neighbor, who then said he didn't launch the flares, and instead it was another neighbor several doors down.
FAA officials told ABC15 on Tuesday that air traffic controllers in the Sky Harbor tower saw the lights, but noticed nothing on their radar, meaning it was not an aircraft.
An official with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said they checked with their command center that monitors the skies to see what is entering the Earth's atmosphere. They have no reports of anything entering the Phoenix area.
A spokesperson from Luke Air Force Base in the West Valley also told ABC15 that the pattern of these lights was not common to an F-16 and that the lights were not from Luke.
The base had no aircraft in the air at the time of the sightings, according to that spokesperson.
Residents like Tony Toporkek caught the lights on camera and shared his video with ABC15.com.
Toporek was talking with his neighbors in north Phoenix when the lights appeared at about 8 p.m.
He grabbed his video camera and started taping.
A Tuesday morning call to Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central coast of California also confirmed they had no activity during the evening and were not tracking anything.
Officials from the Yuma Air Station, the Arizona National Guard and White Sands in New Mexico told ABC15 they had no activity Monday night.
If you saw the lights, send in your stories and pictures by emailing us at News@ABC15.com
Are the Phoenix lights a UFO? (The Socialite Report)
Is it a UFO over Phoenix? The same thing happened in 1997, and the unidentified Phoenix lights are back!
Witnesses of the Phoenix UFO said they saw four or five red lights lined up in a straight line and spaced apart evenly. The lights slowly moved east and became dimmer as three jets flew from the west and traveled in the same direction of the lights.
Witnesses near Deer Valley, Arizona say they saw the lights for about 13 minutes at about 8 PM on Monday night.
An official from Luke Air Force Base stated that they do not have any aircraft in the sky tonight and that the lights are not part of any Air Force activities.
UFO Photos, Video: Phoenix Lights Part Two? (The National Ledger)
By Jon Shanks
The Phoenix Lights were an unbelievable phenomenon that took place in March 13, 1997 and the event was witnessed by thousands of residents. There are photographs and video of the UFO sighting and to this day it is still one of the biggest UFO sightings in history and the most scrutinized. Many have argued that the lights that were filmed were nothing more than military flares dropped in the desert at the Goldwater Range southwest of Phoenix.
Other witnesses that spotted the strange lights believe it was something else and many are still looking for explanations. There were several events that night but the main focus was on the lights because of the video and the photos. Those lights were amber in color and formed a wide V-shape that looked as if it were a mile wide, some witnesses claimed at the time.
It might now be time for Phoenix Lights, Part Two. On Monday night many residents in the north part of the city saw red lights. The lights were bright and so far there is no explanation from authorities on what they were. Several witnesses have already come forward and said they were stunned at what they saw.
One witness told local Channel 12 news (KPNX) that he saw several red lights in the sky that were unexplained and that the lights went out one by one. The witness then said that he saw three jets come from the west and traveled in the same direction where the lights were. What were the strange lights that everyone is now calling a UFO? Authorities say they have no explanation, yet.
Valley man: I was behind mystery lights in sky (AZ Family)
April 23, 2008
PHOENIX -- Phoenix residents and the media still are abuzz over the mysterious four red lights that appeared in Monday night's sky in north Phoenix. A man who lives on the north side of the city, however, claims he's responsible.
The man, who did not want to be identified, told 3TV that he used fishing line to attach road flares to helium-filled balloons, then lit the fares and launched them a minute apart from his back yard.
A Phoenix Police Department helicopter pilot who witnessed the lights said they appeared to be flares, possibly hanging from one or more helium balloons.
Witnesses said the lights initially appeared to be in a straight line, then formed a square and then a triangle before disappearing.
The man interviewed, who asked not to be identified, said he believed turbulence created by a passing jet caused the balloons to move around.
[News Story about Phoenix, AZ 4-21-2008 Hoax Source]
Arizona man claims UFO hoax
By BRIAN WEBB / KTVK-TV
PHOENIX — Many Phoenix-area residents reported seeing mysterious red lights in the sky over the north Valley Monday night. Some said they could be seen for miles, leaving many to wonder what was going on.
Those who saw the four lights said they appeared randomly. Some said the lights made shapes — a straight line, a square and a triangle. The lights reportedly were visible for between 15 and 30 minutes at about 8 p.m.
An area man who does not wish to be identified claims that he was behind the mysterious phenomenon.
He told KTVK-TV that after the sun went down Monday night, he tied road flares to four large helium-filled balloons using fishing line. Then he released the balloons one-by-one, at one-minute intervals.
"Very impressed," the man said. "Very bright, and something I'd never seen before."
According to Deer Valley Airport and air traffic controllers at Phoenix Sky Harbor, no planes were on the radar, although people at both locations reportedly saw the lights.
Luke Air Force Base said it had no operations in the air at the time the lights were seen. NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) also confirmed no activity on its radar Monday night.
Some Valley residents said the lights might have been a UFO.
"It was really close to the star, and when it would go really close, and then go fast far away," said Annie Braslawsce. "It was just unbelievable. I thought it was the coolest thing. It was pretty intense."
The man who claims to have launched the flares said an aircraft did get near the balloon-borne lights. He figures that the atmospheric disturbance left in the plane's wake caused the flares to move in a pattern.
Monday night's sighting comes about a month after the 11th anniversary of the famed Phoenix Lights, when thousands of people reported seeing several lights in a "V" formation hovering over the city. The Air Force eventually said those lights were flares, but not everybody believes that explanation.
The man who said he launched Monday's sky show said he thinks the 1997 Phoenix Lights could indeed have had a similar, terrestrial origin — but that it wasn't his doing.
Denogean: Hey, Phoenix, we've got first dibs on UFOs (Tuscon Citizen)
ANNE T. DENOGEAN Tucson Citizen
Some jokester with flares, helium balloons and too much time on his hands has claimed responsibility for the four mysterious red lights that appeared in the Phoenix skies Monday.
I'm not surprised it was a hoax. If aliens are searching for intelligent life on Earth, Phoenix is the last place they would look.
Settle down, my Phoenician friends. That was just a joke, born out of momentary pangs of Venus-envy.
You see, Phoenix can boast of professional sports, crosstown freeways and, yes, even one notable strange-lights-in-the-sky episode in 1997. But Tucson has always laid claim to arguably the richest history in the state when it comes to UFO sightings and, umm, research.
Until 1988, Tucson was home to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, which was the largest and oldest group in the world studying UFO reports. Starting in 1952, APRO, operated by the husband and wife team of Jim and Coral Lorenzen, studied and catalogued 40,000 sightings around the world. At its peak, APRO had an international membership of 4,000 and the most extensive UFO library in the world.
The Lorenzens sent out a monthly newsletter and ran a 24-hour UFO sighting report hot line. APR0 folded in 1988 after the deaths of Jim Lorenzen in 1986 and his wife in 1988. A University of Arizona physicist, the late James E. McDonald, was one of the most prominent UFO researchers of the 1960s, until his death by suicide in 1971. He spoke on the topic before audiences around the world, including testifying at a 1968 congressional hearing. He was a leading critic of the U.S. Air Force's 18-year investigation of UFOs, Project Blue Book, calling the effort incompetent and superficial.
UFO enthusiasts Ted Loman, Jim Nichols and Peggy Kane brought UFO lore to the local airwaves in 1991 with an Access Tucson cable program called, "UFOAZ Talks," replaced in 1997 by Loman's "Off the Record" show. After Loman moved to Idaho in 2002, Jim Rodger, the director of Loman's shows, started his own program in 2003, "The Cutting Edge." The twice-monthly program delves into UFOs, ancient mysteries and the paranormal.
Loman took his work seriously but had a sense of humor about his exploits. When I interviewed him in 1997, he got a kick out of telling me about the time he and his friends zoomed through the streets of Tucson at 60 miles per hour in pursuit of a UFO that turned out to be a Goodyear blimp.
Tucson even has its own resident UFO debunker in retired Air Force Maj. James McGaha. Often called by media to provide a skeptic's point-of-view, McGaha most recently appeared in a January episode of "Larry King Live" about strange lights in the skies over Stephenville, Texas.
The Tucson Citizen archives are filled with stories, dating back to 1959, of odd objects in our own skies. Some were explained as natural phenomena, weather balloons, missiles and aircraft in follow-up stories. Some were the work of mischievous youngsters, such as a rash of sightings in 1962 that turned out to be balloons sent aloft with candles by a trio of UA students.
But the archives also include some unexplained doozies, including a 1966 report of a large, bright, egg-shaped object hovering near the border (insert your own "illegal alien" or Russell Pearce joke here).
Earlier this week, Tucsonan George Parks, state director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), told me he investigates about 35 sightings a year. He often hears the same opening line: "'Man, I got a story to tell you, but you ain't going to believe it.'"
"Well, I am going to believe it because I'm going to listen to it with an open mind and an open heart," said Park, who invited anyone with a sighting report to call him at 742-6651.
MUFON meets every month at the Pima County Public Library, Murphy-Wilmot Branch, 530 N. Wilmot Road, The next meeting is 1 p.m. May 17. Parks, a resident of Tucson for most of his 72 years, said he's seen UFOs throughout his life. He knows such a statement opens him up to ridicule, but he doesn't much care. It's easy to see, Parks said, "that there's things out here that just don't look kosher."
So, Phoenix, you can try to steal our spring training but, please, leave the UFOs to us.
Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays
Lights over Phoenix a UFO hoax (USA Today)
Unusual red lights that hovered over Phoenix on Monday night captured the attention of Arizonans and reprised an infamous UFO siting in 1997.
Alas, it turns out it was just a nocturnal prank, according to local media:
The man, who did not want to be identified, said he used fishing line to attach road flares to helium-filled balloons, then lit the flares and launched them a minute apart from his back yard. He said he believed turbulence created by a passing jet caused the balloons to move around. ...
“I feel bad for the people freaking out about this,” Lino Mailo, who watched his neighbor launch the balloons, told the Arizona Republic. “I could've put this whole thing to rest.”
Here's how another writer at theArizona Republic (a Gannett cousin of USA TODAY) initially explained the light show:
There were absolutely four lights. They appeared to hover in the sky.
They looked red or white, and they flickered. They were visible for nearly 15 minutes on Monday night.
The lights were seen by, among others, a Phoenix police-helicopter pilot, air-traffic controllers and a reporter. There was even an extended videotape.
But the lights were a mystery. A mystery that generated a lot of interest. ...
Many residents recalled the "Phoenix Lights" of March 1997. A Village Voice writer who worked in Phoenix at the time sets everyone straight (mostly the media) about that night's two events and the official explanation for only one.
UFO Evidence has an archive of articles and documents pertaining to the "Phoenix Lights." YouTube has a "documentary."
Over at LiveScience, the Bad Science Columnist offers this reminder of the danger of gullibility: The light show of 2008 shows just how easy it is to fool the public and create a media stir. All it takes is a few balloons and flares, some spare time, and a mischievous streak.
'Phoenix lights' spark variety of local UFO-related businesses (Phoenix Business Journal, 5-2-2008)
The lights spotted in the night sky over Phoenix last month stoked the fires within UFO believers and further fueled speculation over the mysterious "Phoenix lights" phenomenon of 1997, a formation that some -- including former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington -- believe to have been UFOs.
The latest light show solidifies Phoenix's place in the UFO annals and helps drive Arizona's cottage industry of UFO researchers, businesses and authors.
Thanks to these sightings, the Valley is part of a golden triangle of the UFO community, along with Southwestern neighbors Roswell, N.M., and Nevada's Area 51.
Phoenix hosts UFO conferences and is home to a gaggle of UFO-related businesses, ranging from authors and researchers to artists and DVD producers.
Jeff Willes, a Glendale UFO hunter who sells DVDs related to the Phoenix lights and other Valley sightings, said he had 10,000 hits on his Web site, UFOs Over
Phoenix, after this latest episode. That is helping sales, said Willes, who has four DVDs on the market and has sold more than 2,000 to date.
Most of the UFO entrepreneurs are true believers who say they have seen UFOs and that the sightings can't be discredited by stories of military flares and weather balloons.
"They're real," said Bill McDonald, a Mesa artist who specializes in UFO and alien artwork for books and movies. McDonald, who said he saw a UFO in 2005, said interviews with military personnel about extraterrestrial activity in Roswell led him to change his career path from commercial illustration.
Roswell is the storied site of a 1947 UFO crash. The New Mexico town has linked its economy at the hip with aliens and UFOs, including festivals and a museum.
The secret Area 51 military installation sits in the Nevada desert 90 miles north of Las Vegas. The region spawns UFO-
Was it a hoax?
Man claims that he launched balloons filled with helium and road flares attached underneath them from his backyard. Four of them to be exact, at around 8:00pm. It was also witnessed by his neighbor. Could this explain the event? Videos are archived below for research:
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