UFO HUNTERS - Arizona Lights

History Channel - 12/10/08

What was seen in the skies over Phoenix Arizona on the night of March 13, 1997?  Is it something alien, or a top secret government project?  That night, thousands of witnesses saw a wedge-like shape of bright lights hovering "over" the city.  Earlier in the night, a boomerang-shaped craft was seen over other parts of the state -- sometimes hovering, sometimes moving at incredible speeds.  The craft was said to be up to a mile wide.  Though witnesses claim the lights were otherworldly, the government says they were flares dropped by the Maryland National Guard (see Lights Over Phoenix in a previous review).  A councilwoman who suggested an investigation was ridiculed and harassed.  The state governor seemed about to look into it, and then brought out a man in an alien costume for a press conference, setting off more laughter and derision.  The night in question, a witness described the lights coming on in an arc, and then going out in the same order they came on in.  He says they look nothing like the flares he'd seen before.  He thinks they could have been 1) a hoax, 2) an alien craft (which he says unlikely), or 3) a military experiment.  Expert Ted plans to test the military's flare explanation.

A psychiatrist says that she'd seen such lights before in the months leading up to the sighting.  She describes the events that night as not flickering like flares, but "orbs."  Another witness and his wife first saw lights on the 10th of March.  They do not believe they're flares, either.  Ted explains that flares may look different under different atmospheric conditions.  He sets up a test using maritime parachute flares off of Longbeach, CA.  The witnesses say Ted's flares look different from what they saw -- the other lights hovered.  (This fact was disproved by Lights Over Phoenix; the lights did move, and eventually disappeared behind the mountains.)  The crew then goes on to interview witnesses of the boomerang-shaped craft with five lights.  One witness describes a huge, black shape with an undulating surface, which the show then recreates with CGI.  The show then digresses to try to compare the 1997 sightings to local petroglyphs, 1000 years old -- though crew members point out the symbols on the rocks could as easily be stars (or something else) as UFOs.  They then talk to a scientist/researcher/article writer who says there are some triangular rigid-hull experimental airships (as big as a football field) in experimental use by the military.  They may have been developed for special forces ops, and no pictures exist -- nor will such craft be revealed while they present an advantage to our military.

An interview with the former governor reveals that he was concerned about the intensity of interest in the event, and set up the "alien" interview spoof to defuse the situation. He tried too look into the incident, but got a "no comment" from the air force (which the show takes as an admission that something was there).  In an earlier interview, he also admitted that he saw the strange huge craft on the night in question.  He describes it as "otherworldly."  The crew of the show is split whether the craft is alien or conventional but secret.  The show seems to conclude that the lights could not have been flares.  Personally, I think the UH crew should have done better researsh on this point, or at least watched UFOS Over Phoenix.