Shostak’s 'Phoenix Lights' Faux Pas

Greetings Forumerions,

Original Phoenix Lights eye witness, "Mike Fortson" takes SETI's Seth Shostak to task in this recent article (published minutes ago):

The article written by, “Seth Shostak” on the April 24, 2008, entitled, “Phoenix Lights”, appears like a ploy often times used by “debunkers” to scoff at the truth of the “Massive UFO Flyover of Arizona, March 13, 1997” otherwise known by most as, The Phoenix Lights.

He accredits the 8:30 PM high altitude planes to an amateur astronomer who looked at the formation with his scope. My guess is that he’s never met this amateur astronomer, but I have; he was a 19-year-old young man by the name of “Mitch Stanley.” He had a 10” Dobsonian telescope and at 8:30 PM or so on March 13, he said to his mother, that he observed high-altitude, fixed-winged aircraft flying in formation, wing tip to wing tip, and it “was no big deal”.

We met at Village Labs in Tempe, Arizona in August of that year (’97), while being filmed for a special by Discovery Channel. There were dozens of witnesses along with young Mitch Stanley . . .

The rest of the story . . .

Cheers,
Frank

reply to post by Frank Warren

as Mitch spoke before the crowd while being filmed by Discovery Channel, he told the story of his observance of the high-altitude fixed wing craft, flying wing tip to wing tip; he claimed again, “that it was no big deal” and in his own words he only observed the formation for a few seconds and moved on to other things.

But here is where young Mitch struggled (keep in mind he was not the youngest participant present). During the question and answer segment, a couple of pilots and ex-military people responded that at night no pilot would be willing to fly in such formation. Especially wing_tip-to-wing_tip or even in tight formation, it’s just too dangerous . . . and at night this just isn’t done!

Source.

Cheers,
Frank