CASE FILE US-1997-001
Phoenix Lights
Official finding
No U.S. military or state agency ever issued a consolidated, published report identifying the cause of the evening's sightings. Air National Guard officials confirmed to the press, months later, that flares were released during a training exercise, but Luke Air Force Base's FOIA responses deny direct involvement and no single document covers both reported phases of the sightings.
U.S. Air Force / Air National Guard (no consolidated report published)
Anomaly Index assessment
Likely identifiedMultiple named military pilots, including a Maryland Air National Guard spokesman in 1997 and a participating pilot who confirmed his role on the record a decade later, describe releasing LUU-2B/B illumination flares from A-10 aircraft over the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range around 10 p.m. that night, a description that matches the widely filmed second sequence of stationary, slow-fading lights in timing, altitude, and behavior. That explanation is well supported for the later sequence even without a single consolidated official report. The earlier, more widely debated sighting around 8:30 p.m. of a large, silent, V-shaped formation of lights is far less documented, has no comparable on-record account or instrumented data explaining it, and is not resolved by the flare explanation; it remains the weaker-evidenced part of this case.
Anomaly Index assessments are editorial evaluations of the public record. They are not official government determinations.
What was reported
On the evening of 13 March 1997, witnesses across a roughly 500-kilometer span from the Nevada border, through the Phoenix metropolitan area, to Tucson reported two distinct sequences of lights. Around 8:30 p.m., numerous witnesses, including then-Arizona Governor Fife Symington and Phoenix resident Tim Ley, described a large, silent, V-shaped or triangular formation of lights passing slowly overhead; several witnesses stated the formation blocked out stars as it passed. Around 10:00 p.m., a separate and far more widely videotaped sequence of stationary, orange-hued lights appeared in a line over the southwestern sky and remained visible for roughly 20 minutes, fading gradually from the ground up. Local television stations and residents recorded this second sequence extensively. Governor Symington publicly asked the Arizona Department of Public Safety to look into the sightings; no state report was ever published. Months later, a Maryland Air National Guard spokesman told reporters that Maryland ANG A-10 aircraft, flying out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base as part of a winter training rotation called Operation Snowbird, had dropped LUU-2B/B illumination flares over the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range that night before jettisoning remaining flares at altitude on the return leg.
What is verified
- Witnesses across a wide area of Arizona reported an earlier, roughly 8:30 p.m. sighting of a large, silent light formation and a later, roughly 10 p.m. sequence of stationary, fading lights on 13 March 1997.[3]
- A Maryland Air National Guard spokesman stated in July 1997 that eight Maryland ANG A-10 aircraft dropped illumination flares over the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range on the night of 13 March 1997.[3]
- Luke Air Force Base's FOIA office stated in a 1997 letter that no Luke aircraft were involved and that Luke did not tell media flares were the cause.[2]
- Davis-Monthan Air Force Base's FOIA office stated in 2013 that operational records from the March 1997 period, including any flare-drop logs, had been destroyed under standard records-retention rules.[1]
Evidence ledger
| Type | Description | Originality | Source organization | Released | Raw or edited | Metadata | Provenance | Known limitations | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visible-light video | Widely circulated amateur and local television video of the roughly 10 p.m. sequence of stationary, fading lights over southwest Phoenix. | Original | Local television stations and private witnesses | 1997-03-13 | Unknown | Partial | Recorded independently by multiple named and unnamed witnesses and broadcast locally; widely re-published since. | Documents the later, better-explained sequence rather than the earlier V-formation sighting, for which no equivalent video is confirmed to exist. | [3] |
| Official document | Luke Air Force Base's May 1997 FOIA response letter addressing public inquiries about the sightings. | Original | U.S. Air Force, Luke Air Force Base | 1997-05-01 | Unknown | Yes | Official base records office response, later released under FOIA. | Addresses only Luke's own aircraft and public-affairs conduct; does not address whether other units, including the Maryland ANG, dropped flares that night. | [2] |
| Official document | Davis-Monthan Air Force Base's 2013 FOIA response stating that operational logs for the period had been destroyed. | Original | U.S. Air Force, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base | 2013-08-08 | Unknown | No | Official base FOIA office response. | Confirms no surviving official documentary record exists to verify flare-drop details directly; the flare account rests on individual recollection rather than logged records. | [1] |
| Eyewitness account | Reports from hundreds of civilian witnesses, including then-Governor Fife Symington, describing a large, silent V-shaped formation around 8:30 p.m. | Original | Private witnesses; State of Arizona | 1997-03-13 | Unknown | No | Reported to local media, police non-emergency lines, and later compiled by independent UFO-research organizations. | No radar, photographic, or video record of the 8:30 p.m. formation has been confirmed to exist; descriptions of altitude, size, and distance vary widely between witnesses. | [4] |
Proposed explanations
A-10 illumination flares (10 p.m. sequence)
Proposed by Maryland Air National Guard spokesman Capt. Drew Sullins (1997); confirmed on the record by participating pilot Lt. Col. Ed Jones (2007)
Supporting: LUU-2B/B flares dropped from altitude produce a line of bright, slow-falling points of light that burn out gradually from the bottom up over roughly 20 minutes, matching the recorded behavior, timing, and southwestern bearing of the second sequence; a named participating pilot later confirmed on the record that he flew in the formation that released the flares.
Contradicting: No official Air Force or Air National Guard report was ever published documenting the specific sortie, and Luke Air Force Base's FOIA response denied any Luke involvement, creating some public confusion about which unit was responsible.
SupportedHigh-altitude aircraft formation under visual flight rules (8:30 p.m. sequence)
Proposed by Investigators Robert Sheaffer and retired Air Force pilot James McGaha
Supporting: Aircraft flying in formation at high altitude and low relative speed can appear, from the ground at an angle, to form a single large, silent, slow-moving shape, an effect the investigators attribute to the same broader Operation Snowbird training activity active that week.
Contradicting: Multiple witnesses, including Governor Symington, described a single solid or contiguous shape rather than distinct points of light, and no flight-tracking or radar record has been produced to confirm a specific formation over Phoenix at that time.
PlausibleSingle large unconventional craft
Proposed by Governor Fife Symington (later public statements) and other witnesses to the 8:30 p.m. sighting
Supporting: Consistent descriptions from numerous independent witnesses across a wide geographic area describing a large, silent, contiguous object are cited as evidence against a simple formation-of-aircraft explanation.
Contradicting: No physical, radar, or instrumented evidence of a single large object has been produced; apparent size and shape are difficult to judge reliably at night without a reference point.
UntestedWhy this classification?
This case is classified as Likely identified because the later, more thoroughly documented sequence of lights has a specific, named, on-record conventional explanation — military flares — that fits the observed behavior closely, even though no single official report ever consolidated the finding. The earlier, more contested sighting remains considerably less documented and is not resolved by the same explanation, which keeps this case short of a full Identified rating.
What remains unknown
- What specifically produced the earlier, roughly 8:30 p.m. sighting described by Governor Symington and hundreds of other witnesses.
- Which flying unit or units, beyond the Maryland Air National Guard, may have been operating over southern Arizona that evening as part of Operation Snowbird.
- Whether any radar tracking data for either sighting was ever retained by the FAA or military air traffic facilities.
Classification history
- 1997
Investigation requested; no state determination published — Arizona Department of Public Safety / Governor's office
Governor Fife Symington publicly asked the state to look into the sightings.
- 1997
Flares cited as likely cause of the later light sequence — Maryland Air National Guard (press statement)
Informal statement to the press; never issued as a formal published report.
- 2007
Confirmed on-record participation in the flare drop — Lt. Col. Ed Jones, Maryland Air National Guard (retired)
- 2026
Likely identified — Anomaly Index
Editorial assessment; see index_assessment.rationale and dossier.why_classification.
Sources
- Primary source: Tier AFOIA response 2013-05152-F — records of March 1997 flare-drop training exercise, Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range (opens in new tab)
Source provenance note
Official Davis-Monthan Air Force Base response to a Freedom of Information Act request (filed by researcher John Greenewald, The Black Vault) seeking operational logs for the reported 13 March 1997 A-10 flare-drop exercise over the Barry M. Goldwater Range. The base states that flight and munitions-expenditure records from that period were destroyed under standard records-retention schedules, so no responsive documents could be produced. Mirrored as a scanned original by The Black Vault's FOIA document archive.
- Primary source: Tier ALuke Air Force Base response letter regarding public inquiries, 1 May 1997 (opens in new tab)
Source provenance note
Letter from Luke Air Force Base's FOIA/records office responding to public and media inquiries generated by the 13 March 1997 sightings. The base states that no Luke aircraft were involved and that Luke did not tell media that flares were the cause, while confirming the base received a large volume of public calls that night. Read together with the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base FOIA response, this shows no single Air Force or Air National Guard office ever issued a consolidated, published determination covering both phases of the sightings. Mirrored as a scanned original by The Black Vault's FOIA document archive.
- Credible secondary source: Tier BMilitary now says flares may be cause of mysterious Arizona lights (opens in new tab)
Source provenance note
Contemporary wire report in which Maryland Air National Guard spokesman Capt. Drew Sullins states that eight Maryland ANG A-10 aircraft, training out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base as part of Operation Snowbird, dropped LUU-2B/B illumination flares over the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range on the night of 13 March 1997 before jettisoning remaining flares at altitude. This is the earliest identified on-record military statement connecting flares to the sightings; it was made to the press and was never issued as a formal published report.
- Context only: Tier CThe Phoenix Lights – 2 Years Later (opens in new tab)
Source provenance note
Advocacy-organization retrospective compiling witness accounts of the earlier, roughly 8:15-8:32 p.m. sighting of a large formation of lights over Phoenix, including a named pilot's radio account of an F-15 intercept attempt from Luke Air Force Base. Used for context on the less-documented earlier phase of the 13 March 1997 sightings; discovery and context only, and cannot independently qualify a case for inclusion.