UF-26002
Brief
On the evening of 13 March 1997, thousands of witnesses across Arizona observed a slow-moving V-shaped formation of lights traversing the state. The Arizona governor's office, USAF, and FAA each issued conflicting statements over the following decade.
Filed 2026-05-07 · Last updated 31 May 2026
On the evening of 13 March 1997, thousands of residents across Arizona reported seeing a series of slow-moving lights and, in some accounts, a vast triangular craft passing silently overhead. The episode — now collectively known as the Phoenix Lights — comprises at least two distinct events that night, only one of which has received an official military explanation. It remains one of the most widely witnessed unexplained aerial phenomena in modern United States history.
The earliest reports came from witnesses in Henderson, Nevada, and progressed southward through Arizona over the course of several hours on the evening of 13 March 1997. Observations clustered into two phases: a formation of lights moving in a stable geometric pattern reported between approximately 19:30 and 20:30 local time, and a separate string of stationary lights observed over the Phoenix area later that night, around 22:00 [2].
The later set of lights — those filmed extensively by Phoenix-area residents — was subsequently attributed by the United States Air Force to a flare-drop exercise conducted by A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft from the Maryland Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Squadron, then operating out of the Davis-Monthan and Barry M. Goldwater training ranges. The Air National Guard confirmed that LUU-2B/B illumination flares were released during a training sortie that evening, accounting for the slowly descending line of lights visible from Phoenix [2].
The earlier formation, however, was not addressed by that explanation. Phoenix City Councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood, who initiated an independent inquiry after constituents complained that no public official was investigating, recorded statements from more than 700 witnesses describing a single, silent, V- or boomerang-shaped object passing overhead at low altitude, with lights fixed at its perimeter [3].
In 2007, then-former Arizona Governor Fife Symington III — who had been in office on the night of the incident — publicly stated that he himself had observed the object and described it as a “massive, delta-shaped craft” unlike any aircraft he recognised. Symington further acknowledged that, as governor, he had publicly mocked the sightings at a 1997 press conference (parading an aide in an alien costume) in an attempt to calm public anxiety, and that he regretted the deception [1].
Primary documentation of the case is uneven. The flare-drop phase is supported by official confirmation from the Maryland Air National Guard, including identification of the unit, the aircraft type, and the munitions involved [2]. The earlier triangle phase is documented chiefly through the Barwood investigation file, which compiled witness statements, correspondence with federal agencies, and her own contemporaneous notes as a sitting member of the Phoenix City Council [3]. Symington’s 2007 statement, delivered in interviews and a formal public declaration, constitutes the only first-hand account from a senior elected official who was in office at the time [1].
Significant evidential gaps remain. The flare explanation, while well-supported for the 22:00 event, does not address the earlier formation reported across hundreds of kilometres of Arizona airspace, nor the consistent witness descriptions of a single rigid structure occluding stars as it passed. No radar data has been publicly released for either phase. The chain of custody for civilian video recordings is mixed, and many tapes have been re-encoded multiple times. It is also unclear why the Barwood inquiry received no substantive cooperation from federal agencies, despite her status as an elected city official.
This file is admitted at the OFFICIAL tier on the strength of three convergent disclosures from named, accountable sources: a sitting-then-former state governor’s first-hand account [1], an on-record United States military confirmation regarding part of the event [2], and a documented municipal-level investigation conducted by an elected official [3]. The case is not classified as resolved: the partial military explanation accounts for one phase of the night’s events but does not address the earlier triangular-formation reports, which remain contested.