The Phoenix Lights

The U.S. Air Force eventually attributed both phenomena to Operation Snowbird, a pilot training program operated by the Air National Guard out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. According to the military, the V-formation was a group of five A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" aircraft flying in formation at high altitude, their landing lights creating the appearance of a unified structure. The second event was officially explained as LUU-2B/B illumination flares dropped by A-10s conducting training exercises at the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range near Gila Bend. In 2007, Lt. Col. Ed Jones of the Maryland Air National Guard confirmed he was one of the pilots who dropped flares that night. Analysis of the flares' luminosity confirmed they could be visible from Phoenix at the reported distance of 50-70 miles. The lights appeared to "disappear" as they dropped behind the Sierra Estrella mountains, creating the illusion of lights winking out in sequence. No official investigation was ever conducted into the earlier V-formation sightings, and the Air Force has never confirmed which aircraft were responsible for that portion of the event.

The Phoenix Lights represent a case where official explanations likely account for part of what occurred—but leave significant questions unanswered. The 10:00 PM hovering lights were almost certainly military flares, as confirmed by the pilot who dropped them and supported by video analysis showing their drift pattern matching wind conditions. However, the earlier V-formation (7:55-8:45 PM) remains genuinely puzzling. Mitch Stanley's telescope observation of aircraft is the only direct optical evidence supporting the military explanation for the first event—yet thousands of witnesses, including an experienced pilot who became governor, insist they saw something that blocked out stars and moved as a single, solid structure. No aircraft formation explains the reported silence at low altitude, the apparent size (estimated at up to a mile wide), or the consistent descriptions from witnesses spread across 300 miles. The Air Force has never identified which aircraft allegedly flew the V-formation. Either thousands of Arizonans, including trained observers, experienced identical misperceptions of high-altitude aircraft—or something genuinely unexplained crossed Arizona that night.