The Phoenix Lights were...strAInge

On March 13, 1997, thousands of people across Arizona looked into the night sky and saw something strange. Some reported a formation of lights. Others described an enormous, silent V-shaped or triangular object moving slowly overhead. Hours later, brilliant lights appeared beyond Phoenix and seemed to hang above the mountains. Military officials would eventually attribute those later lights to illumination flares, but witnesses have continued to argue that the explanation does not account for everything seen that night. The Phoenix Lights became one of the most famous mass UFO sightings in American history, but they were not the first reports of enormous triangular objects. Years earlier, Belgium experienced an extraordinary wave of sightings involving dark triangles, police witnesses, radar contacts, and even F-16 interceptors. In this episode of strAInge, we look at the Phoenix Lights, the Belgian UFO wave, the strange history of the flying triangle, and the difficult question at the heart of these cases: when hundreds of people describe something extraordinary in the sky, what exactly did they see? National UFO Reporting Center: The Phoenix Lights NUFORC’s original 1997 account assembled reports from witnesses throughout Arizona, beginning near Paulden and Prescott and continuing south toward Phoenix. It remains one of the most useful collections of contemporary eyewitness accounts from the night of March 13, 1997. https://nuforc.org/phoenix/ National UFO Reporting Center: The Phoenix Lights, Two Years Later NUFORC’s later examination of the case includes additional witness testimony, discussion of the military activity reported that night, and the controversial claim that fighters may have been launched from Luke Air Force Base. https://nuforc.org/phoenix2/ National UFO Reporting Center: Arizona UFO Reports NUFORC’s Arizona database contains individual reports from March 13, 1997, including witnesses describing formations, triangular objects, orange lights, and enormous apparent craft over the Phoenix area. https://nuforc.org/subndx/?id=lAZ Skeptical Inquirer: The Phoenix Lights Become an Incident Robert Sheaffer examines the Phoenix Lights from a skeptical perspective and argues that the events normally grouped together as the Phoenix Lights actually involved separate sightings, including aircraft formations and Air National Guard illumination flares. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2016/11/the-phoenix-lights-become-an-incident/ Skeptical Inquirer: Alien Lights? At Phoenix, Stephenville, and Elsewhere Joe Nickell and James McGaha examine the flare explanation for the later Phoenix Lights and discuss Operation Snowbird, in which Air National Guard aircraft conducted nighttime training exercises involving parachute illumination flares. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2015/03/alien-lights-at-phoenix-stephenville-and-elsewhere-a-postmortem/ Skeptical Inquirer: Out of Balance An examination of media coverage of UFO cases, including the Phoenix Lights and the disagreement between witnesses who believed they saw a massive object and investigators who attributed the visible lights to conventional sources. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/out-of-balance/ FOX 10 Phoenix: Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington on the Phoenix Lights Years after publicly joking about the sightings, former Arizona governor Fife Symington said that he had personally witnessed the Phoenix Lights and believed he had seen an enormous unidentified object. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Fh0g5wJ7A Belgian Air Force F-16 Radar Records, March 30–31, 1990 Material relating to the Belgian Air Force investigation of the extraordinary 1989–1990 Belgian UFO wave. On March 30 and 31, 1990, two F-16 fighters were scrambled after unidentified radar returns were detected by Belgian military radar stations. Colonel Wilfried De Brouwer later presented information from the investigation publicly. The source reproduced here includes radar material and analysis associated with the Belgian Air Force case. https://ufotransparency.com/files/intl-be-f16-radar-charts-1990-meessen-f16-radar-analysis-belgium-1990 Belgian Air Force F-16 Radar Trace Charts Additional records from the March 1990 F-16 interception, including radar trace charts associated with the Belgian Air Force investigation. https://ufotransparency.com/files/intl-be-f16-radar-charts-1990-f16radarnx1 Belgian UFO Wave: Belgian Air Force Summary Report An English-language reproduction of the Belgian Air Force summary describing the conditions under which F-16s were authorized to intercept unidentified objects and the events of March 30–31, 1990. The report notes that sightings had been reported by police and that military radar stations participated in the investigation. https://ufologie.patrickgross.org/htm/belrap02.htm Belgian F-16 Interception and Major General Wilfried De Brouwer Archival video discussing the Belgian UFO wave, including radar material and an interview with former Belgian Air Force Major General Wilfried De Brouwer about the investigation and F-16 interception. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfSl1Ao1pFo This podcast is powered by Pinecast.