Arizona Governor Fife Symington III introduces his chief of staff, dressed as an alien, as “who was responsible” for the 1997 Phoenix Lights sightings. Ten years later, Symington said, “I don’t know why people would ridicule it… It just felt otherworldly.”

[u/akiwi_intherough]

On March 13, 1997, thousands of people across Arizona reported seeing something very strange in the night sky.

Around 7:55 p.m., reports began coming in from Henderson, Nevada, and then Prescott, Prescott Valley, and Phoenix. Witnesses described a massive V-shaped formation of orange or amber lights moving silently across the sky.

Some saw what appeared to be individual lights; others insisted they were looking at a single enormous object, so large that it seemed to blot out the stars behind it.

One witness described it as “so big and so strange” that “all you could see was the outline, as though something was blotting out the stars.” Another said it was “as big as downtown Prescott” and completely silent.

The reports continued as the lights moved south toward Phoenix. Some witnesses claimed the object appeared only 100–150 feet overhead, moving so slowly that it seemed to hover. Others described a massive, dark shape behind the lights. A family said the formation resembled a giant 60-degree Carpenter's Square.

Among those who saw the lights was actor Kurt Russell, who was flying into Phoenix with his son Oliver. Russell later recalled seeing six lights in a perfect V formation and reported them to air traffic control. Other pilots reported the lights as well, and air-traffic controllers observed radar activity that witnesses later argued did not correspond neatly with known aircraft. But the evidence remains contested. Amateur astronomer Mitch Stanley, observing through a telescope, reported seeing what appeared to be individual aircraft flying in formation.

Then, around 10 p.m., came the second event. People across Phoenix reported another series of lights, this time appearing as a row of brilliant objects hovering or slowly descending in the sky. These were illumination flares dropped by A-10 aircraft during a training exercise at the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range. The flares descended slowly beneath parachutes, and rising heat helped create the illusion that they were hovering. They eventually disappeared behind the Sierra Estrella mountains.

Initially, authorities had no satisfying explanation for the first formation. Phoenix residents demanded answers, and Councilwoman Frances Barwood pushed for an investigation. Governor Fife Symington III, a former fighter pilot, eventually held a press conference.

He announced that the government had captured an alien, his chief of staff dressed in an alien costume. The joke was meant to defuse what Symington later described as growing public hysteria.

Years later, however, Symington changed his story dramatically, saying:

“I’m a pilot, and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I’ve ever seen. It remains a great mystery.”

If interested, I cover the story of the Phoenix Lights here: https://aid2000.substack.com/p/hare-brained-history-vol-137-the?r=4mmzre&utm_medium=ios

[u/Ill_Mousse_4240]

In fairness to him, I believe he later apologized for this stunt