The Phoenix Lights
March 13, 1997
The Phoenix Lights are probably the most widely witnessed UFO sighting in modern American history. On the evening of 13 March 1997, people across Arizona, from near the Nevada line to Tucson, called in reports of strange lights in the sky. Some described a huge V-shaped formation; others watched a line of glowing orbs hang over Phoenix.
What people reported
Wikipedia, drawing on contemporary reports, says sightings came in across a stretch of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line through Phoenix to the edge of Tucson, starting around 8:15 pm. Some witnesses described a large V-shaped object or formation of lights moving across the sky; later in the evening, a row of bright lights appeared to hover over the Phoenix area.
Arizona's governor at the time, Fife Symington, held a jokey press conference soon afterwards, but years later said he had seen the lights himself and found them 'otherworldly', as Wikipedia records.
What investigators found
In July 1997, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press (in the Deseret News) reported that the Maryland Air National Guard had been flying training missions that night. A Guard spokesman, Capt. Drew Sullins, said eight A-10 jets were over the Barry M. Goldwater range, about 60 miles southwest of Phoenix, and that before returning to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson they dropped their remaining high-intensity flares at high altitude.
Wikipedia separates the two parts of the night: the V-shaped group is attributed to a formation of A-10s flying over Phoenix on their way back to base, and the later hovering lights to flares dropped over the Goldwater range. Many witnesses reject these explanations, and the flare story does not obviously explain every report, so the case remains debated.
Legacy
The Phoenix Lights have become a fixture of UFO culture, with documentaries, anniversaries and books. Wikipedia notes that similar lights in 2007 and 2008 were traced to military flares and to flares tied to balloons.