04x05 - The Phoenix Lights Phenomenon

[bunniefuu]

Tonight, a shocking event

sends the city of Phoenix

into a panic.

More than 100 witnesses

called the UFO hotline.

Some believe it's one of

the largest scale UFO sightings

in history.

They were about 3,000 feet high,

approximately.

They looked as though

they were kind of hovering.

But the question is,

what the heck is it?

Now, we reveal the top theories

behind this phenomenon.

What we find out is this

isn't an isolated incident.

These phenomena happen

all the time.

Is the government

covering something up?

Is Phoenix in the crosshairs

of a possible interstellar w*r?

Are we being targeted

for some reason?

What could possibly account for

the mysterious Phoenix Lights?

New York, New York,

December 16th, 2017.

News breaks of a secret

Pentagon program

investigating

unidentified aerial phenomenon,

also known as UFOs.

The New York Times publishes

a bombshell report

that details the work

of the Advanced Aerospace

thr*at Identification Program,

a shadowy government group

that has spent 10 years

investigating

m*llitary encounters

with strange unknown objects

in the sky.

Here is another UFO bulletin.

For years, people have

reported encounters with UFOs.

Roswell, Lubbock, Belgium

the list goes on and on,

and stretches

as far back as antiquity.

Acknowledging

this program's existence

is huge, because up

to this point

the government's position

has been deny, deny, deny.

And now,

they're not only admitting

that these lights in the sky

really are something,

but that they are,

in fact, unidentified.

Within months the government

declassifies videos

of some of these encounters.

Look at that thing, dude.

Including one

captured by the Navy in 2004,

known as the "Tic Tac Video."

My gosh.

100 miles off the coast

of San Diego,

radar tracks the object

descending from 15 miles high

down to 50 feet

in about one second.

Whoa, got it!

Woohoo!

No known object

can fly that fast.

Oh my gosh, dude.

- Wow.

- What is that, man?

Look at it fly!

When jets intercept it,

the cylindrical craft

drops down below the water

What the is that, man?

then flies up

into the air,

and then disappears.

When radar detects the object,

it's already 60 miles away.

The video causes a sensation

when it's released.

It's not only massive

international news,

it's also vindication

vindication for people

who have seen these craft

and have spent years

swearing that they exist.

Perhaps none

feel more vindicated

than the citizens

who witnessed a strange event

on March 13th, 1997.

On the night of March 13th,

reports come in from Phoenix,

as well as California,

Nevada, and New Mexico.

People are describing

a huge V-shaped craft

moving southeast

along the region.

Around sunset,

a man in Henderson, Nevada,

observed and reported

a triangular-shaped aircraft

with lights underneath it

hovering over the desert.

He moves in closer

to get a better look,

and the object starts to move.

Now, he doesn't know

what he's looking at,

but he does know

this is not an airplane.

The sighting

of the unidentified craft

is quickly confirmed by others.

Twenty minutes later,

a retired police officer

calls to report that he's seeing

the same object

200 miles south of Henderson.

He follows it with his car,

and he's never closer to it

than about a mile.

And yet, even from there,

he can tell it's gigantic.

Reports continue to flood in.

At 8:20, Prescott Valley,

20 minutes later,

downtown Phoenix.

I was kind of surprised

to see it on the news,

but at the same time,

I was excited,

because I thought

I would get some answers

to explain this strange thing

that I'd just seen.

These were

incredibly bright lights.

They were completely motionless,

made no sound,

and these lights just hung there

directly over me,

and I was awestruck.

I observed these lights for

a period of about 30 minutes,

went inside,

came back out later,

and 45 minutes later,

this string of lights

is still in the sky.

Also among the eyewitnesses,

Dr. Lynne Kitei.

On March 13th,

1997, the Hale-Bopp comet

was in clear view

on a beautiful spring night

in the northwest sky.

Thousands of people went outside

to catch a glimpse of it.

I go outside,

and suddenly I notice

three amber orbs.

Every other light

out there glared.

These did not.

The light did not extend

outside the edge.

It was self-contained.

They were very soothing,

very mesmerizing.

And then, the top orb

started to shrink

very, very slowly,

until it was pea-size,

and then disappeared.

But it felt like

it was still there.

As Dr. Kitei

watches the sky,

calls pour in to local police

and news stations.

We start tonight

with those strange dots of light

that were the talk of the town.

More than 100 witnesses

called the UFO hotline.

For answers,

authorities immediately

reach out to Luke

Air Force Base.

Luke Air Force Base is a base

right in the heart of Phoenix,

and they fly a lot

of advanced aircraft.

So, obviously, if anybody

knows what's going on,

they would be

someone you would call

to find out what the heck

this is.

So, police, reporters,

and even the governor

are calling the base

to find out what's going on.

Luke Air Force Base

indicated that they had

no planes

up in the air at the time,

and they didn't know

anything about it.

It was basically, "Nothing to

see here, move along."

But four months later,

the base offers an explanation.

They indicated

that a team of A-10 Warthogs

from the Maryland National Guard

had deployed flares

over the Estrella Mountains

at that time.

Footage from that night

seems to support this theory,

at first.

It's getting closer

and closer, and we're saying,

you know, that thing's

coming right at us!

When you look

at the witness video,

I guess it's possible

they do kinda look like flares.

And m*llitary activity

is pretty prevalent in the area.

In addition to Luke,

there's Davis-Monthan Base,

also in Arizona.

And then there's Kirtland

and the Holloman bases

not too far away in New Mexico.

But eyewitnesses

quickly raise doubts.

So, the Phoenix Light event

really had two phases.

One was the large V-shaped craft

flying across the state,

and the other was the lights

over the Estrella Mountains.

However, when you look

at the flare theory,

the flares might explain

the lights over the mountains,

but it doesn't explain

the V-shaped aircraft

witnessed by thousands

of people.

It was so awesome

and so mind-boggling.

Massive, massive craft

right over people's heads.

It was silent.

Took off at blank speed

without even dispersing the air.

If you're trying to tell me

that flares

that are dropped

from an aircraft on a parachute

that drop haphazardly

with the wind,

have huge smoke trails

that are illuminated

by the flare itself,

and illuminate

the area around it.

They're heat-seeking

for missiles

that are coming

towards aircraft.

And not one person described

any of that.

And there are other red flags.

The Air Force claims

that the A-10 Warthogs

deployed the flares over

the Estrella Mountains

around 10:00 p.m.,

which is not typically

standard operating procedure.

In addition to that,

those flares

the LUU-2B/B flare

falls at a rate

of about eight feet per second.

And from the time

the first flare was dropped

to the last flare,

those flares would have dropped

some 1,500 feet.

Yet the video shows those lights

in a stationary position

for about 30 minutes.

And these amazing amber orbs

were just mind-boggling,

so different than anything

you've ever seen,

different from any other

light out there.

It definitely wasn't flares.

The massive craft

also leaves no trace on radar.

Air traffic controllers at

Sky Harbor International Airport

check their call logs

and their radar,

and found no indication

of these aircraft.

And if that's not

the definition of a UFO,

I don't know what is.

To silence the skeptics,

the Air Force decides to conduct

a flare-drop demonstration

for the public.

We get a very

public announcement

that three Air National Guards

were coming into town

to show everyone

the Phoenix Lights,

and we were ready.

And a lot of people

felt that exercise

didn't look similar to what

they had seen on March 13th.

Talk about a joke.

They tried to make a triangle.

It was upside-down

and fell apart immediately.

One of them just fizzled out.

Had huge smoke trails,

just what flares do.

It really put

the nail in the coffin.

They had their sh*t.

To date, the Phoenix Lights

have never been recreated

or explained.

It's almost comical

that this is what

they expect us to believe.

But fortunately,

I and many others in Phoenix

who saw the Phoenix Lights

that night

weren't about to take

the Air Force's word

at face value.

We were ready to dig in

and get answers.

After thousands

witness unexplained lights

in the sky above

Phoenix, Arizona, in 1997,

the city is desperate

for answers.

The March 13th, 1997

Phoenix Lights incident

was probably the largest

UFO mass sighting

in UFO history.

But the question is,

what the heck is it?

The m*llitary says it's flares,

but almost nobody

in Phoenix believes it.

They know what they saw,

they know what flares look like,

and these weren't flares.

One of the things that

I think bothers people the most

is the behavior of our m*llitary.

Initially, the Air Force

denies having any involvement

with the event,

but four months later

they come out with

this flare story.

Why is that?

Even Governor

Fife Symington himself,

a former Air Force pilot,

tried to make inquiries

to the m*llitary

as to the identification

of this object, and he himself

got the runaround.

And he's the governor

of the state of Arizona.

Symington was also skeptical

of the flare explanation.

He claimed that, you know,

flares don't fly in formation.

Is it possible the m*llitary

has something to hide?

So, many people feel

that Luke Air Force Base

is not letting on

everything they know.

And the reason

they could be doing that

is because they're protecting

some secret m*llitary technology.

Located 20 miles

northwest of downtown Phoenix,

Luke Air Force Base is home

to the most advanced aircraft

in the U.S.

Luke Air Force Base

is affectionately called

"The Home of the Fighter Pilot."

It's where the 56th Fighter Wing

is based.

And this is

the Air Force's version

of what the Navy famously calls

Top g*n.

Back in '97, it was the F-*5,

the F-16s were coming out.

There were a whole bunch

of other kinds of aircraft

that could potentially be seen

being flown out

of Luke Air Force Base.

Basically,

any fixed-wing aircraft

in the U.S. arsenal

has flown at Luke,

plus a few that we don't

know about,

because they're top-secret.

We know for certain

that the U.S. m*llitary

has tested top-secret weapons

and aircraft

in this area for decades.

Among the

state-of-the-art aircraft

initially flown here,

the X-1, the X-15,

and the Blackbird.

Each test is classified

and top-secret,

and for some, that's a clue.

These are all aircraft

that were developed

and tested in total secrecy

up over the deserts here.

If you would ask the m*llitary

about any of these

back when they were still

being developed,

you would have heard

the same kind of subterfuge

and denial that we heard with

the Phoenix Lights incident.

There's a high presence

of the m*llitary

in the state of Arizona,

and perhaps they were testing

some secret technology.

So, it makes sense that people

might have mistaken

what they saw on the night

of March 13th, '97,

for a UFO.

It wouldn't be

the first time that's happened.

In the 1980s

there were many UFO reports

in the state of Arizona.

However, those reports

ended up being identified

as the F-117A and the B-2 Bomber

that were in development

at the time.

When you look at these aircraft,

what do you see?

You see V-shaped aircraft

that look similar

with what they reported

in the Phoenix Lights,

albeit smaller.

More recently,

we've had some UFO sightings

that actually turned out

to be advanced spy drones,

like the Air Force's

RQ-170 and RQ-180.

Engineers contracted

by the government

are currently at work

on a new stealth bomber,

the B-21, which is scheduled

to be operational

in the mid-2020s.

That project wasn't greenlit

until 2015,

so it's not responsible

for the Phoenix Lights.

But it just goes to show they're

always working on something.

If nothing else,

we know that the Southwest

is a hotbed for innovation

for aerospace

in the public

and private sector.

Even so, some doubt the m*llitary

has the advanced technology

witnesses say they observed

in Phoenix in 1997.

Witnesses describe something

out of a sci-fi movie.

They see this giant

V-shaped craft

which was hundreds

and hundreds of yards across.

By comparison, known aircraft

such as the B-2 Bomber,

the wingspan is only 172 feet.

Or the largest plane

known to be flown,

the Stratolaunch,

only had a wingspan

of 385 feet.

Our government has never flown

anything this big.

The Phoenix Lights craft

also moved slowly.

Estimates place it

at about 15 to 30 miles an hour,

and it was maybe 100 to 200 feet

off the ground at times.

He thinks that he said

if he had a tennis ball,

he could have hit it.

He could have thrown

a tennis ball at it,

- it was that close.

- It was very close.

I just could have nailed it.

Others report seeing the object

come to a stop

and hover in place.

Airplanes can't do that.

There's not enough airflow

to produce loft

with their wings.

Helicopters can,

but the Phoenix Lights craft

moved silently.

The flight characteristics

that they describe

are unlike any other machine

we have in the air today.

And keep in mind,

this is back in 1997,

so 25 years ago, they had

something this incredible,

and it still hasn't ever

seen the light of day?

But John Powell,

a private defense contractor

for JP Aerospace,

believes this capability exists,

and will soon be made public.

Powell and JP Aerospace

were awarded a grant in 2014

to develop slow-moving,

top-secret classified

triangular aircraft.

So, Powell believes that perhaps

what they saw

during the Phoenix Lights

was something similar

to what he's been developing.

The specs of these

are highly classified,

but JP Aerospace

was able to get a prototype

of this thing going.

Meanwhile, Arizona lawmakers

continue to press

the m*llitary for more answers.

So, Frances Emma Barwood

was a City of Phoenix

councilperson.

She launched an investigation

into the Phoenix Lights

because no one else would.

She interviewed

over 700 witnesses.

She offered to let the m*llitary

talk to those witnesses,

and they chose not to interview

a single person.

Then-Senator John McCain

put in a formal request

for more information,

but that request was denied.

If it's m*llitary, show me.

We have not seen anything

technologically

even close to what thousands saw

on March 13th, 1997,

right above their heads.

The technology

has never been seen.

If it was m*llitary

experimental aircraft, show me.

Until really

the government comes out

and says this was them,

and it is some sort

of classified project,

people just still aren't gonna

know what to believe in,

and it'll remain a mystery.

Phoenix, Arizona,

April 21st, 2008,

nearly 11 years

after an entire city

witnesses a strange UFO event,

it happens again.

So, on Monday

at about 8:05 p.m.,

again, you know, the police,

the Air Force,

authorities are being

inundated with reports

that there's another set of

lights hovering over the city.

It's unbelievable, or maybe

it's totally believable.

If it happened once,

why couldn't it happen again?

Live and late-breaking

right now, they're back.

Did you see them tonight?

Many people called our news room

about lights in the sky.

People reported that

there was a series

of four or five

orange-red lights

over the north valley.

It's like a repeat

of the 1997 incident.

People come out running out,

and they see

a V-shaped formation of lights.

Initially there was four lights.

They were about 3,000 feet high,

approximately.

They looked as though they were

kind of hovering or floating.

But as it progresses,

this event plays out differently

from the 1997 sighting.

As this 2008 formation hovers,

the shape changes

from a triangle into a square.

The previous lights just

remained uniform

in their V-shape.

Lights in the sky,

did you see them tonight?

Many people were calling

our news room.

And if you missed it,

take a look.

One man in North Phoenix caught

the lights on home video,

15 minutes' worth.

Whatever you believe happened

back in 1997,

people are convinced

that it's happening again.

This time, they won't

have to wait long for answers.

Unlike the Phoenix Lights,

the mystery to this event

only lasted about 12 hours,

because the next day,

April 22nd,

a man called in admitting

that he was responsible.

It was all a hoax.

The whole thing was staged.

The man tied flares

to helium balloons,

and then let them go

one minute apart.

Is this a relief?

Is it disappointing?

Does it make people angry?

It's hard to know how to feel.

But one thing it does

is it makes people

look back at the real

Phoenix Lights event

11 years prior, and think,

"Well, wait, what if that

was a hoax too?"

Back in 1997 while they're

looking for answers

and people are going

to the government,

there are a lot of people

that think

the whole thing was just a gag.

A 1997 press conference

held by Arizona's

then-governor, Fife Symington,

seems to bolster that theory.

We're initially excited

and think we're finally gonna

get a real investigation.

And Fife Symington saw it,

and he's one of us.

And now, I'll ask Officer Stein

and his colleagues

to escort the accused

into the room

so that we may all look

upon the guilty party.

Don't get him

too close to me, please.

It's you know.

In walks Governor Symington's

chief of staff, Jay Heiler,

dressed in an alien suit

and handcuffs.

It's met with

laughter and applause.

It really does the whole thing

a huge disservice.

The problem with

the press conference

was it made getting answers

so much harder.

If you ask

any questions about it,

you were labeled a crackpot.

Those kinds of things

are not helpful.

And for people

who are really interested

and they wanna find out

what's going on

Thank you.

You can't get

to the bottom of anything

because no one is taking

it seriously.

After that news conference,

the national media

picked up on that,

that it's a joke

and not a serious event,

and that became the story.

It's a story

some refuse to accept.

Most people who thought

it was a hoax and laughed at it

didn't actually see it happen.

But unfortunately,

I think that laughter

and skepticism was loud enough

that it kept many of us

from finding more answers.

It's unlikely that

the Phoenix Lights

could be explained as a hoax,

because you would need

someone to convince people

along a 400-mile length

of desert

that they're seeing an object

as large as a cruise ship

with lights on it

as large as swimming pools.

Then you would have to pull

a second stunt

and convince a population

of 2.5 million people

that, you know, this large

V-shaped group of lights

flew over the city.

That would be

awfully difficult to hoax.

Twenty-five years later,

if it was a hoax,

I would think that someone

would have come forward

now that it's become

world-renowned.

That has not happened to date.

The individual

responsible for the 2008 prank

can't even hold his tongue

for 24 hours.

Saying it's a hoax

is really saying

that all of the witnesses

didn't understand what

they were seeing.

It's saying that

they were gullible rubes.

Then, 10 years

after the 1997 sighting,

Governor Symington

changes his story

and challenges the hoax theory.

So, in 2007, Governor Symington

came out to indicate

that not only was

the Phoenix Lights not a hoax,

but that he, in fact,

saw the craft himself.

Well, I saw a a huge craft

just kind of come

right over Squaw Peak

that was you know,

it was just breathtaking.

At the time people

in the city of Phoenix

reported a UFO sighting,

Symington was under

such political pressure

as governor of the state,

he did not want to add

to those political woes

by claiming to have seen

a UFO himself.

Thanks to him,

for about a decade

the Phoenix Lights is really

largely viewed as a hoax.

But his abrupt about-face

creates renewed interest

in the case.

It returns to the news cycle,

and it comes at a time

when people

are more willing to believe.

It's no longer a joke

or a source of embarrassment.

It's a genuine mystery.

After news of the Pentagon's

secret UFO monitoring program

makes headlines in 2022,

Congress vows

to investigate further.

That spring, the House holds

the first public hearing

on UFOS in more than 50 years.

Those who witnessed

the Phoenix Lights

hope it can finally

lead to answers.

Congress talks to dozens

of defense

and intelligence officials,

and collects thousands

and thousands of documents.

All of that research is compiled

into a House Committee report

about UFO encounters

like the one

that happened in Phoenix.

And while we know

that people have seen UFOs

from time to time,

what we didn't know

is that the m*llitary themselves

have had hundreds

of their own UFO encounters

which they've been keeping quiet

until now.

UAPs are unexplained, it's true,

but they are real.

They need to be investigated,

and many threats they pose

need to be mitigated.

This is huge.

This is the U.S. government

going on record

to say these things are real.

They've collected 144 incidents

about these UAPs.

Eighty of those

they have data on,

infrared, sensory,

and of course, video.

Well, describe what

we have seen in that.

What are we observing?

What you see here is aircraft

that is operating

in a U.S. Navy training range

that has observed

a spherical object in that area.

And as they fly by it,

they take a video.

Several declassified

government videos

are released, all seeming proof

that extraterrestrial

encounters exist.

And suddenly,

we have all the evidence we need

about what happened in Phoenix.

Thanks to the hearings,

we find out

that these encounters

aren't isolated incidents.

They happen all the time.

I mean, how else

can you reconcile the facts?

A silently floating,

hovering craft

the size of several

football fields,

invisible to radar.

There's nothing on Earth

that fits that description.

Believers like Michael Carter

cite a 1997 call

made to AM radio show

Coast to Coast

as further evidence

of an alien encounter

over Phoenix.

The call is from a corpsman,

someone who actually works

at Luke Air Force Base.

He has an incredible story

about what happened on the base

when this object appeared

over the sky

of northern Arizona.

The corpsman said

the base gets a call about 8:15

about a large object moving out

of the sky in the northwest.

Soon afterwards,

an alarm goes off,

and all hell breaks loose.

Luke Air Force Base keeps

two F-15s on standby

for emergency use.

And on the evening

of March 13th, 1997,

allegedly they scrambled

those two F-15s

to intercept the object.

The radio caller

doesn't know what it is,

and to be frank, I don't think

the pilots do either.

The caller claims that the event

had scared the hell

out of the pilots,

but they had gotten

some g*n camera footage

of the object.

If the caller

is telling the truth,

the Air Force may have

actually recorded

the Phoenix Lights UFO.

Which means,

possibly locked away

in some secret vault somewhere,

we may actually have footage.

We may have proof of what

these pilots actually saw.

Unfortunately,

if the video exists,

it's never released,

and the anonymous caller

has no additional information.

He isn't one

of the pilots sent out.

He's just on the base

when he hears all the commotion

and the base goes into lockdown,

so he can't say exactly

what the potential spacecraft

was doing in the area.

Some theorists believe

it's not there by coincidence.

Within a 500-mile radius

of the city of Phoenix,

there are several

secret m*llitary bases.

Area 51 to the north,

Edwards Air Force Base

to the west,

and White Sands

m*ssile Base to the east.

If aliens were scouting

Earth and its defenses,

this would be

a perfect place to go.

Arizona is also home

to several nuclear sites,

areas that recent evidence

suggests may attract

unidentified aircraft.

We're having more

and more sightings now,

and within those sightings

there are certain patterns.

And what we're seeing is that

there are more events

where these UFOs are hovering

over our nuclear

m*llitary instillations.

The phenomena isn't

limited to the United States.

There are sightings in Mexico,

Italy, and even Iran.

There's a series

of UFO-related events

that happen in

Iran in 2004 and 2005

over one of their secret

nuclear sites.

Several times during

that two-year period

pilots near the Bushehr

Nuclear Facility

have encounters with

large luminous cylinders

that look and sound similar to

the quote-unquote "Tic-Tac UFO"

that U.S. Navy pilots

saw in San Diego.

And in one of those encounters,

an Iranian pilot

actually engaged

with the object.

As news of such events

continues to spread,

more become convinced that

what happened in Phoenix

isn't an isolated incident.

Arizona's vast desert

has been home to humans

for many thousands of years.

And according to some,

there are signs

in the archeological record

that suggest

the Phoenix Lights incident

is far from unique.

When you look back

into the history of this region,

it dawns on you that before

we even had the technology

where we could take pictures

of this,

and videos, and what have you,

this part of the country

was always having

these kinds of sightings.

The Native Americans

who live in this part

of the Southwestern

United States

have a very complex mythology

in which we see numerous

references and stories

about the so-called

"star people."

These are powerful,

yet benevolent beings

arriving from other worlds.

Both the Hopi and the Zuni

trace their ancestry

back to beings

that they believe arrived

from the region of the Pleiades,

which is a star cluster

about 400 light years away

near the constellation

of Taurus.

We see myths and legends

about the star people,

a benevolent but powerful people

that these tribes

have interacted with.

These myths and artwork

suggest this area

has been a hub

for extraterrestrial activity,

and that the Phoenix Lights

incident

is just part

of a repeating pattern,

that these star people

have been coming back

time and time again.

Some believe

the Phoenix Lights incident

is just one in a series of

extraterrestrial encounters

that have been going on

for a long time,

but started to increase in 1995.

The March of '97 event

was certainly seen

by the most people,

but some believe

there were several

previous fly-bys.

One of them was witnessed

by several people.

They stated

that on January 21st, 1995,

they saw a triangular formation

of large lights.

They weren't bright,

necessarily,

but they were really big.

They looked odd.

I step out on the balcony

and immediately notice

an eerie silence.

The entire object

turned against the wind,

elevated slowly, and then moved

in synchrony behind

South Mountain.

But it felt like

something was watching me.

According to the

National UFO Reporting Center,

the sightings in Arizona

grow increasingly frequent

in the two years before

the 1997 Phoenix event.

Researchers

have found that coming up

to the 1997 event,

that there was an increase

of sightings

of triangular craft.

In fact, in January

and February of 1997

we have multiple reports

from multiple locations

of the same formation

of lights over Arizona.

Air traffic controllers

at Sky Harbor

International Airport

observed five

equidistance lights

that rose about 1,000 feet

above the deck,

they floated back

behind South Mountain,

and dropped out of sight.

They had no idea what they saw.

It wasn't on radar,

and they behaved in a way

that was unexplainable.

And right before

the Phoenix Lights,

a tiny Arizona town is treated

to an encounter of their own.

On March 12th, 1997,

the night before

the Phoenix Lights incident,

a group of people made reports

of UFOs

in a town called Leupp.

Leupp is 200 miles

north of Phoenix,

south of the Grand Canyon

and the Hopi Indian Reservation,

who as we've seen,

share a rich mythology

of alien visitation.

A large V-shaped aircraft

appeared in their valley

with about a dozen

other small craft,

and they began to float

and engage each other

almost like

an extraterrestrial ballet.

And these people pulled out

their lawn chairs

and watched it like

they were watching the fireworks

on the 4th of July.

But why did

these possible visits ramp up,

and why did they stop?

That's the real question.

Let's say Arizona has been

getting regular alien visitation

for millennia.

What's so special

about the mid '90s

that we start to get

a flurry of activity?

We go from a few visits

per century

to a few visits per year,

to several in the same month.

Then, absolutely nothing.

Can anybody explain that?

Despite the many

thousands of eyewitnesses

to the 1997 Phoenix event,

the cause of the incident

remains a mystery.

It's m*llitary flares,

it's an experimental aircraft,

it's a hoax, it's aliens.

Is the government

covering something up?

Are we being targeted

for some reason?

Each theory

has some arguments for it

and some against it,

and each by itself leaves a lot

of unanswered questions.

Many theorists say,

"Wait a minute,

"we've had these answers here

the whole time."

The events on March 13th, 1997,

isn't just about just one

of these theories.

It's about all of them.

It all begins

around 8:00 p.m.

This is the period when people

actually see the spacecraft.

The hull of it and the structure

of it is visible.

The silent movements,

the anti-gravity technology

it seems to exhibit.

Knowing what we now know

about the long history

of UFO contact

in the United States,

many are convinced that this

is an alien ship.

It does a low slow pass

across Nevada and Arizona,

sparking hundreds of reports

to authorities.

As we know from

the Luke Air Force Base

radio caller,

these UFO sightings

get the attention

of the m*llitary.

They scramble their jets

on a course to intercept.

According to that airman,

they actually see the craft,

and perhaps even film it.

Now, the airman

claims that F-15s

were sent out to investigate.

But simultaneous reports

here, here, and here

show that

that may not have been so.

Many don't believe

they sent F-15s

next to the alien ship.

People didn't see any F-15s,

radar didn't pick up any F-15s,

nobody heard any F-15s.

These are pretty loud

fighter planes.

You know when an F-*5

is flying overhead.

One thing that characterizes

this whole event

is how quiet

the whole thing was.

The m*llitary actually sends out

a top-secret experimental craft.

People over here

are seeing an alien ship,

while people over here

are seeing

a top-secret m*llitary aircraft.

Is it possible

that the U.S.

scrambled a top-secret

experimental craft

to intercept

the alleged alien vessel?

One thing is certain,

whatever is in the air

doesn't stay around long.

Why it leaves, we don't know.

Were they spooked

by the m*llitary intercept?

Are they trying

to gather intelligence

on our defense capabilities?

Whatever the reason,

they took off.

Now, if this theory is correct,

the m*llitary

has a problem on its hands.

They know a large amount

of the population

in the Phoenix area

has seen this alien spaceship.

But in 1997,

the government's policy on UFOs

is very clear

deny, deny, deny.

Thanks to recent

congressional hearings,

it's clear the m*llitary

has a long clandestine history

of encounters with UAPs,

as well as a history

of cover-ups.

Perhaps the Phoenix Lights

is one of them.

And Luke Air Force Base

is a possible ground zero.

So, the bigwigs

at Luke Air Force Base

speak to their superiors,

and they realize

they have precious little time

to figure out how to deal

with this situation.

Within a half hour or so,

they come up with a plan,

a subterfuge,

which is a little hoax

of their own.

They send up A-10 Warthogs

to drop a series of flares

right over Phoenix.

They choose a very visible place

where everyone will see.

So, if they were going to do

a secret quote-unquote

"training exercise,"

why would they drop these flares

in front of 2.5 million people

knowing they were gonna

freak out about it?

If it was what they say it was,

they would have done it

in seclusion.

They choose to drop the flares

in front of the whole city

on purpose,

because it's not

a training exercise,

it's a distraction.

Their explanation

works initially.

While 1,000 people

are seeing an alien spaceship,

a million-plus people are seeing

flares in the sky.

That's the story

the Air Force releases,

and they're able

to convince people for a while.

They at least confuse

enough people to create doubt.

They even convince the governor

to ignore what he saw

and call the whole thing

a joke on national television.

If it is just m*llitary flares

and I come out

screaming about aliens,

I'm gonna be a laughing stock.

Once you have people thinking

in that way, you've won.

So, there's an alien encounter.

Then it's the sighting of

a top-secret m*llitary aircraft.

Then it's flares

used to create a hoax

and then to cover up the truth.

Thanks to new

government transparency,

believers are optimistic

the truth

will someday be known.

Now that the armed forces

are more open

about UFO sightings,

there's renewed hope

that they might come out

with more information

about what actually

happened in Phoenix.

What did they encounter in 1997?

Did they actually

capture it on film?

As they continue to declassify

these files and videos,

maybe we'll find out.

As congressmen, senators,

and even presidents have said,

the focus of their research

is to determine

if UFOs pose

a thr*at to America.

Some people are curious,

and then there are some people

who are really scared.

Is Phoenix in the crosshairs

of a possible interstellar w*r?

Well, the public

would like to know that.

It's a hard thing to explain,

but a lot of people

who experienced this event

came away feeling something,

wondering if they were meant

to see it,

meant to feel it,

meant to experience

some sort of connection

with what they saw.

Some even describe feeling calm

or even being told

to not be afraid.

People were in awe

and in wonder, curious.

So many cars pulled over

to watch this amazing,

extraordinary sight.

In real time and in long term,

it affected the experiencers

very profoundly.

Who are you?

What are you?

Do you know that I'm here?

I'd love to meet you.

Today, the U.S. government's

tracking

and studying of UFOs

continues under the authority

of the Unidentified Aerial

Phenomenon Task Force.

There's even a new branch

of the m*llitary to assist

the United States Space Force.

And perhaps together

they'll gain insight

into what really happened

in Phoenix.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."