By Bill Hamilton
New
controversy has erupted over the Phoenix Lights this year on the 10th
anniversary since their sighting. New
lights have been witnessed south of Phoenix and the flare explanation has once again been resurrected especially since
a statement made by one of the A-10 pilots out on maneuvers on that day in
1997. A lot of attention has been given
to the formation of amber lights
videotaped on that day while little attention has been given to eyewitness
sightings of huge and low-flying chevron-shaped and deltoid-shaped silent
craft.
The
The
lights were flares, said the Air National Guard, dropped during nighttime
exercises at the
That’s
what they were, insists Lt. Col. Ed Jones, who piloted one of the four A-10s in the squadron that he says launched the flares.
Jones,
in his first interview with the news media concerning the night 10 years ago,
says he can’t believe a decision to eject a few leftover flares turned into a
UFO furor that continues to this day.
He
now is assistant director of operations for the 104th Fighter Squadron of the
Maryland National Guard.
On
the way back to
Jones and the crew
returned to
Comment
made on release of this story:
Parachuted flares do not hover motionless in the sky. They
fall, slowly, but the fall is perceptible as recent military flares over
With the 10 year anniversary of the Phoenix Lights around
the corner (March 13), it is no surprise the Brass is rolling out the official
debunker squad to pepper the news. It took Lt. Jones ten years to make his
first public statement?? Hmmm. Recent flare drops were
probably part of the same sad attempt to lull the public into continued
complacency over one of the most spectacular UFO events of the 20th century.
This Photo Taken From Usery Pass East of Phoenix Shows What some are Calling the Phoenix Lights Part 2 (Image: National Ledger)
Images of flares at night
From Ufosoverphoenix.com, a comparison of the Phoenix Lights and flares
On May 9, 2003 I received a phone call from
Dr. Lynne Ketei who had videotaped the Phoenix Lights
on March 13, 1997 and again on January 14, 1998 after the National Guard
conducted a re-enactment of their flare drop on the
Now that the National Guard in Arizona alerted the media that Operation
Snowbird would drop flares during the week of March 13th, 2000 as they did in
1997 and several cameras were out to catch the action, we can now eliminate the
Operation Snowbird flare scenario for the lights captured on video in 1997 – they
do not match the Operation Snowbird flares.
I have been saying this all
along and witnesses have asked the Guard to repeat the exercise so they could
see if it looked like what they had witnessed in 1997. According to
UFOLAWYER Peter Gersten who saw the latest videos on
television, they do not match the witness sightings of March 13, 1997 or the
videos taken that night. Our research team had come to this conclusion by May
1997 but it took a repeat performance to convince others. And, so far, we have
not heard any reports of flares seen over
The story on these events were in the March issue of UFO magazine and were aired on The Learning Channel March 5th, 2000.
For clarification on what happened on March 13, 1997 over
Event 1 of a Type 1 object is the sighting of the boomerang formation. However, the number of lights in the boomerang seemed to vary along the path of the object from 5 to 7 according to the witnesses. Some of the witnesses described this formation or object as huge, even up to 1 mile in span. It traveled, according to all witnesses, on a trajectory from Northwest to Southeast. It traveled at slow velocity along most of its course with one exception where it seemed to accelerate quickly. Its altitude was estimated to be below 5,000 feet. We know this is simply an estimate as it is difficult to determine the altitude of a flying object in the night sky. The witnesses agreed they could hear no sound emanating from the boomerang. The color of the lights changed between white and red.
Event 2 of a Type 2 object was the big black triangular form that was estimated by some witnesses to be as large as 2 miles in span! The lights on this object varied from none to as many as 9 amber lights. Some saw white lights, but they did not glow brightly. This object was seen to apparently deploy one of the lights to the west as it was moving on its southeasterly trajectory. The independent light-object has been described as a small orb or sphere that glows, but does not cast a corona, glare, or reflection from opaque surfaces.
Event 3 - lights were the formation of amber-gold-orange lights seen
arrayed near the
Event 4 of a Type 3 object were the 2 large top-shaped object with engirdling pulsing rings of red light seen by Bill Greiner near Luke AFB. These lights were also seen traveling North to South on the west side of the valley. Bill reported seeing 3 jets take off from Luke AFB to intercept the nearest object. That object then performed a rapid vertical ascent leaving the planes far behind.
Event 5 - Globes were reported seen in the vicinity of the triangle
described as Event 2. These were large white luminescent globes that hovered
silently over Fountain Hills, east of
At this point in the analysis we knew that these objects were unconventional; they did not behave like a conventional aircraft or natural objects. They were unidentified; they were not identifiable as a known class of objects or aircraft according to the descriptions given by witnesses. They were unknown; the origin and nature of the objects are not generally known.
As we probed further my co-investigator Michael Tanner came up with a further analysis:
1. FORMATION OF HOVERING ORBS - First observed in a
hexagram pattern at about 7:30 p.m. over the Superstition Mountains area east
of Phoenix in the characteristic 8+1(or 2) formation of amber orbs and was next
seen in two separate arc patterns with "trailing lights" over Gila
River area at about 9:50 and again at 10:00 at the southern edge of Phoenix
where they were seen by thousands and videotaped by a handful who had
camcorders close enough at hand to catch the fleeting minutes of their
displays. These amateur videos have immortalized the orb formations, becoming known
around the world as The Phoenix Lights. These are the very same lights that
started the controversy over "flares" and that will be taken up in
the next chapter. The last appearance of the hovering orbs of the night was
made over a now recognized "hot-spot" of
2. "V" FORMATION OF FLYING ORBS - First
seen leaving the Henderson-Las Vegas area and entering Arizona at high speed, a
V-formation of five to seven orbs, variously seen as bright blue-white to a
yellow-white, came through the Prescott Valley area at low altitude by 7:50
p.m., turning south, where by 8:28, were videotaped (displaying their
characteristic movement within the formation) at the north end of the valley
that comprises the Phoenix metro area. In an apparent slower mode of flight,
the orbs appeared at that point as amber in color as the formation moved along
Interstate 10 angling toward Tucson after having been visually seen (not on
radar) to intersect air traffic coming in on approach to Sky Harbor
International Airport. After hovering for several minutes over a car full of
witnesses driving north on I-10 at 65 mph, the formation was then picked up by
observers in the Oracle area who reported the orbs' color as red to red-orange
before the formation split up, going in separate directions while skirting the
edges of the Tucson metropolitan area. At various points independent of this
very specific formation, individual orbs were seen to shoot across the metro
3. CHEVRON VLO (narrow angle) - Observed first
as a "V" formation of five white lights moving slowly and silently
toward Prescott Valley from the northwest at about 8:15 p.m., the
"chevron" was soon clearly seen as a single object. The huge craft
made a pivot turn over the witnesses' home there while the lights shifted into an
arc formation while the lights turned red and then it shot off at blinding
speed toward
4. BOOMERANG VLO (wide angle) - This "V"
formation, consisting of five groups of three lights, was confirmed to be a
single huge object by various Prescott-area witnesses, being equivalent to a
formation of five 747s flying absolutely lock-step in formation toward Phoenix.
The craft was seen to make a southerly turn at about 8:25, once again, in the
5. TRIANGULAR VLO (narrow angle) - This is the one
seen by the family in
6. BIG BLACK TRIANGLE (wide angle) - By all accounts the largest of the VLOs in the March 13th parade of craft, this gigantic craft was first seen at close range over north Phoenix between 8:30 and 8:45 where the key witnesses (real estate people who subdivided the area) estimated its size to be as much as two miles wide as its wingtip lights fell over two parallel streets that are 1.8 miles apart. Its flight path brought it low to the ground at this point (less than 2,000 feet) where it was seen to not only have dozens of lights along its leading edges, but also a row of windows wherein the silhouettes of "people" were observed! At some point further south, other witnesses reported that they saw nothing but the row of windows with beings (also in silhouette) as all of the lights were turned off at that point. By the time the VLO was seen over I-10 south of Casa Grande, however, three large lights were seen to be turned on, one at each corner, with smaller lights on along with the leading headlight. The witnesses here reported that it took them one to two minutes to drive under this immense ship while they were driving at 80 mph! They estimated the width of this VLO to be at least two, possibly three miles wide and big enough for a C5-A Galaxy or "Condor" troop transport (the largest conventional aircraft known) to land upon it! The craft had definite structure to it and the family of witnesses described its color as a flat blue-black like the color of a shotgun barrel. They also reported seeing rectangular "panel-like" structures on the underside of this craft.
Another large triangle was seen moving just north of
7. GIANT DISCOID VLO - Witnessed first by a retired
airline pilot, his sons and a friend, and seen coming down Scottsdale Road at
about 10:20 p.m., this huge circular craft, featuring amber lights around its
perimeter (at an estimated one mile in diameter) was seen to make a purposeful
turn toward Sky Harbor at about Camelback Road where it also intersected air
traffic before disappearing from view over South Mountain. The corroborating
central Phoenix witness, also a former pilot (Vietnam) and retired U.S.
Marshal, described how the craft both reflected the city lights on its
underbelly and blocked out the stars with its upper half, attesting to its
being a single craft of spectacular "mile-wide" proportions. This
witness also claimed to have videotaped what he saw from the roof of his
apartment building, but his tapes mysteriously disappeared in what may amount
to a genuine "men-in-black (MIB)" episode. This craft may also have
docked with the "chevron" craft and cloaked in "visual
stealth" mode in its earlier pass through
8. MILITARY JET/UFO INTERCEPTION ATTEMPTS - We have to date identified four such events (there may be more) that clearly point to the conclusion that the Phoenix Lights UFO incident of March 13, 1997 was certainly no secret "black ops" or classified military exercise as many people would like to believe. A woman who lives next to Luke Air Force Base in the west part of the valley surfaced to report that at least 6 pairs of jets and as many as 8 were "scrambled" out of the base on the night of March 13th, something she could never recall witnessing before. One researcher called Luke AFB and asked someone who was out on the flight line if anything was seen by base personnel, and, unofficially, he answered that "they" were all over the place. The response from Luke spokesmen and their response to FOIA requests indicate that they were receiving phone calls about the lights, but never scrambled any jets to pursue them. Witnesses say different. Here are the witness reports:
A) Crown King at 5:30 p.m. - A formation of 3 huge
"Vs" were seen hovering over this pine-topped mountain and were soon
joined by a diamond-shaped or triangular craft which appeared "out of thin
air" (at first seen as an amber light). As the four objects were hovering
together, two jets were seen to come low from the south (from the direction of
Luke AFB) at which point the UFOs went into a "stack", collapsed upon
each other while going "into a ball", then totally disappeared! This
would be called a case of high strangeness. Finding nothing there, the two jets
circled the Crown King area and returned in the direction of the base. Similar
disappearing acts of formations of "Vs", one over Lake Mead that
afternoon and on March 27th over
B) Central Phoenix at 8:15 p.m. - A pair of F-15s were dispatched from Luke AFB to attempt an interception of one or more of the Vs approaching or entering the valley at that time. This was reported to NUFORC by a ground crewman at Luke who stated that the aircraft were equipped with gun cameras and that one of the pilots had to be helped out of his plane because he was so shaken by his encounter. A cursory check revealed that Luke AFB no longer has F-15s in its inventory and only has the F-16 aircraft. However, at one time both were maintained at Luke. Could these F-15s have been visiting aircraft? There is still some attempt to locate the civilian witness who corroborated this story.
C) North Phoenix at 9:30 p.m. - One of the witnesses
who had earlier witnesses with his wife the giant wide-angle triangle reported
that when he was later at home, he saw in the distance what appeared to be the
return of the triangle, this time with only three lights on, one at each
corner. As the UFO hovered near the
D) Luke AFB at 10:00 p.m. - (The original Event 4 -
the first aircraft/UFO encounter to be reported). A truck driver who had been
watching two unusual amber lights move ahead of him to the south for fully two
hours as he drove down I-17 from
As you can see by Michael Tanner's event analysis and my own event analysis, there was a lot of activity on March 13th, yet the media chose to cover only 2 of these events. The Big Black Triangle has been virtually ignored by the journalists and is considered significant since these triangles have been reported more frequently throughout most of the world.