Phoenix Lights reports

Record summary

On 13 March 1997, residents across Arizona reported lights or formations, while videos captured a separate or possibly related sequence near Phoenix. The episode is valuable for comparing eyewitness geography, videotape analysis, military activity, weather, flares and media framing. Proposed explanations include an A-10 flare exercise, aircraft formations and a large structured object; the possibility that multiple events were merged is central to analysis. Public memory often treats the evening as one encounter, but timelines and locations should be reconstructed from emergency calls, aviation records and contemporaneous reporting.