1997 Arizona Lights

Since I was unable to find a topic on the 1997 Arizona Lights on this forum I would like to ask everyone what their opinion is on the incident. After watching the video several times I still find it bizzare the way the lights line up like that in the sky. In my opinion it is either a row of UFO's or one large one. What is your opinion?

I am more or less convinced that the lights were flares dropped over the military base. I saw a rather convincing piece on it on the discovery channel. Although I do find it very interesting that lights were sighted earlier those evenings in other parts of the state that could only be described as some kind of craft. It almost seems like (and this is pure speculation) that some people did indeed see an unusual ufo earlier, and the military tried to debunk the sightings by dropping the flares. Perhaps to try and explain away the earlier sightings.

I watched this program on the lights where they super imposed the mountain range in the background of the video taken of the lights, and the lights did go out in a manner that correlated with the sky line of the mountains, if the lights were behind them. A very interesting case though over all.

I concur. I find it far more that coincident that the western half of that state saw a moving, structured set of lights...and then all of a sudden we have something that can easily be debunked.

Hmmm....

Well if they were flares that's what I call percision drops by the military. Well executed. Still an interesting case though.

Nay soothsayer's

I was in Nevada headed for Phoenix at the time, a coincedence. And the apparition or craft was witnessed by tens of thousands of Arizonians in the area. Every radio telephone station was barraged by calls.
Military jets were dispatched.
It is common knowledge in the area. There has been no explanations because there aren't any

I always believed it was a mass of UFO's

There si a fairly in-depth analysis of the video tapes for the 1997 incident. It appears they really were just flares. From reading on the subject there is evidence that the flares are from snowbirds flying in formation and dropping excess flares so they could land. (The planes are not allowed to land with flares on board)

Here are some links:
www.skywatch-research.org...

www.virtuallystrange.net...

I saw the lights over a period of several nights and they were not parachute flares. I have been under parachute flares on the bomb range and know what they look like. Also I have not seen any more "parachute flares" since. I would think that I would see some more since the military shoots them off all the time. The fact is the military has never used parachute flares in the area where the Phoenix lights were sighted. The military gunnery range is almost a hundred miles southeast of here.

the 'event' was preceeded by

weeks of 'preparations'? like all the
'grand opening' galas, with spotlights criss-crossing
the Phoenix night skies..a hollywood type deal &

in the daytime, there was a saturated skyline--
with all types of 'dirgible' balloons, tethered to
the businesses- sometimes 3 or 4 strung upward

on a single rope, the 'dirgibles' were silver & red &
yellow, all sorts !!
and, like i said, there were maybe 12 or more different
'floaters' from mesa to chandler to phoenix to glendale
north mountain to south mountain
ALSO, the Desert Sky Pavilion, had a lot of activity
going on night after night, the sky-beam-lights &
fireworks too

One could say, the public was being primed for looking
to the skys & the night skys in phoenix since mid
january 1997...with so much activity becoming 'routine'

enjoy the journey

Well if they were flares that's what I call percision drops by the military. Well executed. Still an interesting case though.

Not so precise...look closely at the footage again...you'll see the lines are off more than just a tad....

I too am of the flare theory...especially when comparing the footage with the geography of the area from the vantage point of the footage, and seeing that the lights disappear in the exact order as would dropped falling objects, disappearing behind the terrain...

Originally posted by Lukefj
There si a fairly in-depth analysis of the video tapes for the 1997 incident. It appears they really were just flares. From reading on the subject there is evidence that the flares are from snowbirds flying in formation and dropping excess flares so they could land. (The planes are not allowed to land with flares on board)

Here are some links:
www.skywatch-research.org...

www.virtuallystrange.net...

Snowbirds are winter visitors who come from other states to spend the winter in Arizona. LOL Planes do not need flares to land. They have landing lights and runway lights if they need visuals to land at night. There never was a reason for "flares" to be dropped where the Phoenix lights were sighted. Some people just find this as a convenient reason to deny UFO's.

VIEW FROM THE CARGO BAY

It is one of my favorite cases. Right over a major city , with a lot witness's. I do not think they where flares. They certainly did not look like any flare that I'm familier with. I saw a show on this. And the military saying they flares. I did not think it was very convencing. Those lights were in straight lines. They didn't waver or die out like flares normaly do. If it wasn't UFO's I think it was a military project. One they do not want us to know about. Its a pretty cool case,IMO.

groingrinder,

I was not implying that the aircraft needed flares to land. It is regulation that aircraft do not land with flares in their payload, thus, after there exercise they had excess flares that they were REQUIRED to dump.

Read the links I posted, it's all there, in black and white.

www.aircraftresourcecenter.com...

Oops, my mistake, they did not state the type of aircraft. The military exercise was called Operation Snowbird. LOL

We Canadians have some pretty nice snowbirds though, eh?

I don't think so. Thses lights were very bright,not like the little blinky lights seen on most aircraft. Also airplanes generaly have more than one color of light.(white,green,red). These lights seemed to be an amber color and didn't change.

snowbirds dropping flares...did he mean THESE snowbirds? (the flares being the lights) Just wondering where the snowbirds term came from in one of the above posts....or was the name miswritten....

Oops,sorry. I still don't buy the flare theory. It is just one of the excuse's they have given us. I believe at one point they said they were weather ballons with flares on them. Sorry but when I hear weather ballon as an explanation,I tend to stop listening. The military/government has used weather ballons as an excuse too many times.

Gaz,

It was actually a military exercise called operation Snowbird. I amde the mistake, I thought the article mentioned the planes were snowbirds, but it does not.

The flares dropped were very high intensity flares attached to parachutes, capable of staying in the air for very long periods of time.

I think this adequately explains the phenomenon. Also as you mentioned Gaz it was not a precision drop, and they did disappear on the horizon in accordance with the mountains.

Canadian Snowbirds...was just a poor attempt at humor...