The Phoenix Lights
Around 8 pm, people across Arizona looked up at a V of lights crossing the sky so slowly it seemed to hang there.
What was reported
On the evening of 13 March 1997, people from Nevada down to Tucson reported a formation of lights moving across the sky. Many described a huge V- or boomerang-shaped object that blocked out the stars as it passed silently overhead.
Later that night, around 10 pm, a second set of lights hung over the mountains south-west of Phoenix. That second event was widely filmed, and it is the footage most people remember.
Explanations offered
The US military said the 10 pm lights were flares dropped by aircraft during an exercise over the Barry M. Goldwater Range, and many researchers accept that. The earlier V formation is more disputed. Some say it was planes flying in formation, while witnesses who saw it overhead describe one solid object. Arizona's governor at the time, Fife Symington, later said he had seen it himself.
- When
- 13 March 1997
- Where
- Phoenix, Arizona, USA
- Witnesses
- Thousands
- Status
- Disputed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.