On the evening of March 13, 1997, witnesses across Arizona reported a formation of lights moving southward through the state. Accounts from the earlier portion of the evening commonly described five or more lights arranged in a V or boomerang pattern. Some observers interpreted them as separate aircraft while others believed they were attached to a single large, silent object. Reports arrived from areas north of Phoenix and continued through the metropolitan area toward southern Arizona.
A second event occurred later that night. Around 10 p.m., a row or arc of bright lights appeared southwest of Phoenix and was widely videotaped. The Maryland Air National Guard later stated that A-10 aircraft participating in Operation Snowbird had dropped illumination flares over the Barry M. Goldwater Range. Those slowly descending flares provide a strong explanation for the later, stationary lights seen in the best-known video footage. They do not by themselves explain every report of the earlier moving V formation.
The two events are frequently blended together in popular retellings, creating the misleading impression that a single phenomenon was either completely explained or completely unexplained. Contemporary reports show that authorities received many calls, and then-Arizona Governor Fife Symington staged a joking press conference with a costumed "alien" in June 1997. Years later, he said he personally witnessed the earlier formation and considered it unexplained. His later testimony documents his own belief, not the object’s origin. The clearest treatment separates the explained flare sequence from the still-disputed earlier sightings.
Evidence and claims
Large numbers of light reports and the later flare exercise are documented. The widely filmed late-night lights are strongly associated with Air National Guard flares. The earlier V-formation reports have no single documented official identification, but that does not establish an extraterrestrial craft.
Sources
- latimes.com — Contemporary Associated Press report on the Phoenix sightings, public response, FAA statement, and Governor Symington’s June 1997 press conference.
- nuforc.org — Contemporaneous civilian report log documenting the earlier moving V-shaped light reports as they arrived from different Arizona locations.
- anomalydesk.com — Detailed source-based reconstruction distinguishing the early formation from the later Maryland Air National Guard flare event and listing contemporary source material.
- anomalyindex.jonathanrreed.com — Records-oriented review of available FOIA material, Maryland Air National Guard statements, and the lack of a single consolidated official report covering both events.