What were the Phoenix Lights?

“The Phoenix Lights were a series of large V-formation light sightings over Arizona on March 13, 1997, witnessed by thousands. The U.S. Air Force later attributed them to A-10 flares dropped over the Barry M. Goldwater Range.”

The Phoenix Lights were a series of large V-shaped light formations observed by thousands of witnesses over Phoenix, Arizona, on the night of March 13, 1997. Reports described both a slow-moving carpenter's-square-shaped craft and a later set of stationary lights that hung in formation for several minutes. Then-Governor Fife Symington publicly mocked the sightings at the time, then later acknowledged he had personally seen the formation and described it as "otherworldly." The U.S. Air Force attributed the later set of stationary lights to A-10 Warthog flare drops during a training exercise over the Barry M. Goldwater Range. The earlier carpenter's-square formation has never been definitively identified. The Phoenix Lights are not part of PURSUE Release 01 but are routinely referenced as one of the highest-witness-count UFO events in U.S. history.