I just watched “The Phoenix Lights” documentary on DVD about the UFO sightings seen by thousands in Phoenix on March 13, 1997 (and also on subsequent dates).
I remember hearing something vague a few years ago about “UFO sightings in Phoenix” but didn’t pay too much attention to it. So seeing this documentary was, well, “interesting”.
My impression: the lights were apparently seen by thousands, including “reliable” witnesses: pilots, LEOs, air traffic controllers, doctors, and (finally admitted 10 years after the fact) the ex-Governor of Arizona. So there really seems to be something to the sightings.
On the other hand, the documentary was focused more on people’s experience than a scientific or skeptical viewpoint. Being an SDMB denizen, I was disappointed that they didn’t go more into the science of the possible explanations and either discount them or call them plausible. And I was disappointed in the “benevolent aliens are here to help us” vibe in the last 15 minutes or so.
So, let’s discuss the case. What explanations are there for these lights? (Denying their existence doesn’t seem credible at this point with so many witnesses.) Are they real? Terrestrial aircraft of some sort? Secret military craft? Atmospheric phenomena? Hoaxes? Optical illusions? Mass hysteria? Or are they alien / trans-dimensional craft? Or something else?
Also, any Phoenix dopers see it? Your thoughts?
J.
p.s., MODS: I wasn’t sure where to put this (CS since it’s a documentary. GQ because I’m asking about the case itself. IMHO because no one really knows the truth.). Please move if appropriate.
I didn’t know there was a dvd out about the Phoenix lights. I remember it well. I wasn’t in Phoenix, but El Paso, which is in the southwest desert. We saw shit in the sky on a regular basis. To the point that you’d look up–see something weird–and go “wonder what that is” and forget it. In the El Paso/southern New Mexico area, there are Fort Bliss and White Sands and other military bases. Who knows what that stuff is!! The Phoenix lights reminded me of the “Lubbock Lights” incident in 1951.
I can’t find the piece on their website, but some years back, Popular Mechanics did a pretty big article on the lights. Their conclusion, and one that makes sense, IMHO, is that what people saw were tests of UAV prototypes. Some of the descriptions given by the eyewitnesses, match those of artist conceptions of what some of the classified UAV designs are supposed to look like, as well as resembling research craft used by NASA, for high altitude studies.
I live in Phoenix and did at the time of the sightings. Of course, every time some crackpot has a new theory or the anniversary rolls around, it’s all over the news again.
My own best guess, particularly with the non-denial denials that come up whenever someone official is interviewed, is Luke Air Force Base. It’s a major training center for pilots and a likely spot to test any new technology in desert conditions.
I haven’t seen the documentary and probably won’t, but AF testing is one of the more common hypotheses among the non-loony out here.
The Phoenix lights were military flares. In fact, when the lights started disappearing one by one, the sequence exactly matched their falling behind a range of mountains in the distance. Other lights around the state were apparently a formation of planes. In other words, there were multiple explanations. Check out eSkeptics’ account.