20 years later, why do people still talk and wonder about the Phoenix Lights?
The truth may be out there, but at this point, it’s the journey that’s the story.
Twenty years ago, eerie lights in a large “V” formation traveled a 300-mile path over the state the night of March 13, 1997, with thousands of people, including then-Gov. Fife Symington, witnessing, well, something. Later that night, orbs of light hung on Phoenix’s southern horizon.
“Those who believe it was an alien craft … have it easy. It’s those trying to find other, less exotic explanations who have it tough,” read an article in The Arizona Republic that June.
An official explanation for (at least part of) the phenomena didn’t surface until July. By then, it was already firmly ensconced in UFO lore.
So, why are we still talking about this 20 years later? There’s the fact that believing in the mystery is much more fun than the military’s version of events. And there’s the fact that many people truly believe there’s a pattern here that can’t be explained.
Let’s travel back down memory lane.
For the skeptic
The official explanation came after an Army National Guard captain decided she’d had “one too many UFO calls” and launched an investigation. Arizona’s military bases had been saying they had no planes in the air that night. But it turns out they hadn’t checked visiting aircraft.
Capt. Elieen Bienz then found that the Maryland Air National Guard ran an exercise called Operation Snowbird.
They flew A-10s, in formation, out of DavisMonthan Air Force Base along a range southwest of Phoenix and dropped high-intensity flares on their way back to Tucson.
There. Mystery solved. You can stop reading this article and rest easy tonight.
For the believer (and the curious)
However, that explanation doesn’t align with reports of lights coming from the north, and popping up near Kingman (which Bienz admitted then in July 1997).
And the fact that months before, Phoenix became such a hotbed of UFO interest, some people reported seeing strange lights, including Dr. Lynne Kitei, who would later conduct her own investigation, write a book and direct a documentary.
And the fact that UFO researchers report that lights were first spotted near Henderson, Nevada, before being seen in Arizona. Afterward, they were spied in Mexico.
And some reports that some witnesses, whose stories were shared at the International UFO Congress last month in Scottsdale, reported a sort of temporary amnesia after they saw the lights.
However, even among the UFO community, some investigators say there’s not enough evidence to say it was extraterrestrial, just extremely bizarre.
But, there’s enough room for doubt, so here we are.
We’ll leave you with this quote, from UFO researcher Jim Dilettoso: “I don’t know what it was. I only know what it was not.”
And this from onetime Republic columnist Dave Walker: “Whatever they were, the Lights have become as much of a national calling card for Arizona as disgraced politicians, mediocre pro sports teams and soul-searing summer heat.”
It’s been 20 years, but some things never change.