NUFORC Home Page
Web Report Indexes : by Event Date | by Location | by Shape
| by Posting Date
National UFO Reporting Center Sighting Report
Occurred : 6/20/1997 20:34 (Entered as : 06/20/97 20:34)
Reported : 6/21/1997 12:07
Posted : 1/28/1999
Location : Carefree, AZ
Shape : circle
Off-White Colored Object at High Altitude - Personal Witness Report
Summary. October 3, 2009 3:20 PM. Sunny, mostly clear with scattered clouds. Temp 86. Wind Speed 8. Wind direction from WSW. An off-white looking object with no recognizable shape or relevant size apparently at high altitude to the north of Phoenix city limits near I-17, very slowly moving to the west but rising in altitude at about same speed vs horizontal movement. After watching it for about 10-minutes it eventually reached such high altitude that it was no longer visible.
Large Multi-Colored Object - Personal Witness Report
Summary : June 20 1997 - A large round fireball type of object, glowing a bright green, with also some yellow & white light dropping from the NW to the SE, near ground level, at about a 45 degree angle & disappeared behind the north side of Black Mountain.
This likely was not a meteorite. I'm an amateur astronomer. Every meteorite I have ever seen was always white never any color, a small point of light, and faster and higher elevation than this object. The color was a fairly brilliant (almost neon) light green, it had lesser shades of yellow and white. It seemed like I could actually see a round object rather than the normal point of light. It was heading toward earth at a 45% angle.
There is no way it could have burned-up as it was near ground level when it disappeared behind Black Mountain, approximately' 30-miles north of Phoenix Arizona. It was the same size and light intensity when first viewed high up in the sky. There was an almost full moon at the time and the sky was still somewhat light from the sunset so it's even more amazing how bright and visible this object was, as the sky was far from dark at the time.
The next day I made a phone call to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and later checked the local media but there were no reports of any incidents in the area. by David Green
Phoenix UFO Sightings Personal Witness Report
By the way, I also witnessed the UFO's near Phoenix on 3-13-97 which I am reporting now. They were due south of here, I would estimate directly over Phoenix. Its dark sky here as there is no city lights in this rural area 30-miles north of downtown Phoenix. The dark sky and lack of bright city lights explains why my view was so good. Plus, I am elevated here at 2,600 foot level, on the slope of Black Mountain.
My wife and I observed the 3-13-97 objects for about 20 to 30-minutes at about 9:00 PM (from the front patio of our new house, looking to the south). The group of UFO's (later thought to be 1 big UFO with 5 or 6 lights) was in a wide quarter-circle formation with 5 or 6 objects )or 1 big object) to the right (one of the 6 to the right was very faint and barely visible, which is why I say 5 or 6), and 1 object to the far left of center and separated somewhat from the others (see photo below, the brighter object is near the left edge). They were much larger than a star or airplane lights. The were round and glowing a steady white light (there was absolutely no sound heard in the sky at my quiet rural location)
They were heading very slowly from west to east, almost hovering in the sky and just barely moving. The UFO did not lose altitude at all. This eliminates them being flares or balloons (which we later heard on the TV news the military said they may have been). Plus they were flying in a steady and well defined constantly maintained geometrical formation.
After about 15-minutes some of the lights simply started disappearing, almost like they turned their lights off. After approx' 30-minutes they all vanished from view. It's not like they moved out-of-sight, but they seemed to have simply "blinked-off". There is no way they could be airplanes, far too slow moving to possibly maintain altitude, silent, and nearly stationary (except for a very slow lateral movement). They could not be military flares as they lost no altitude at all during the entire time.
Plus, I believe they were close enough to make out the object, rather than just a point of light. They were all equal size round white objects, except the brighter object to the left of center which was separated from the others and may have been somewhat larger than the group to the right of center. It was later thought that 1 object to the left may have been part of one large object with 6 lights).
All 6 were flying in a quarter circle formation and curved in a near-perfect geometrical arch. There is no other explanation for this than UFO's. Being an amateur astronomer I view the night sky all the time and have never seen anything like my sightings of March 13 and June 20, 1997. My wife also witnessed the 3-13 sighting and her version is exactly the same as mine. Reported June 21 1997 by David Green
As a very interesting side note, my daughter Natalie was visiting a friend at their house on a hill in a very quite rural area near Cottonwood Arizona that evening, which is roughly 100-miles to the NNW of my location in Carefree AZ, and about 30 miles north of Prescott Valley AZ (where many other reports came from, see below). She called me at about 10:00 PM (about 1/2-hr after I witnessed the Phoenix lights myself) to tell me she had just arrived home in Sedona (AZ) after leaving the friends house early because she was scared about seeing some UFO's in Cottonwood (roughly 20-miles south of Sedona).
She reported that at about 8:00 PM she and friends were in the yard of the house when 6 or 7 bright objects (or one big UFO with 6 or 7 lights) flew almost overhead, but offset a little to the west. Even though it was at relatively low altitude all she could see were the bright white lights and no physical objects. What made her more scared than anything is them being utterly silent as they flew overhead. They first appeared over the nearby Jerome (AZ) Mingus Mountains to the NNW, 2 lights appearing at a time. Their direction was heading to the SSE (toward the Phoenix area). I am convinced they were the same objects I witnessed roughly 1-hous later, and at my location about 100 miles to the south. Reported June 21 1997 by D.M. Green
National UFO Reporting Center
News Release
UFO Events Over Arizona - March 13, l997
NUFORC Index
The following is a preliminary summary of perhaps the most dramatic UFO sighting that has been reported to the National UFO Reporting Center over the last 2-3 years …
Please note that this report is the result of some of the first data received by NUFORC, and is subject to revision depending on subsequent reports and data that may be received in the future. Also, this summary has been composed before receipt of any written reports from the witnesses to the events. From experience, the staff of NUFORC knows that written reports almost invariably will cause preliminary findings to be amended or discarded. However, every attempt has been made here to make this summary as accurate a rendition as possible of those facts which seem to be the most reliable, and which were reported by more than one observer.
NOTE: This summary of events concludes with an account of allegations that the object(s) over Arizona that night were "intercepted" by two U. S. Air Force F-15c fighter aircraft from Luke AFB. However, despite the fact that there is some mild corroboration for this claim of military activities, other elements of this report are not able to be documented by the NUFORC staff at the time of this report.
The first call received over the UFO Hotline (206-722-3000) was from a former police officer, who called to report that he and his family had just witnessed a bizarre cluster of red lights moving very rapidly across the night sky in the vicinity of Paulden, Arizona, (approximately 30 miles north of Prescott, AZ) at about 8:16 p.m. (local time) on Thursday night, March 13, 1997.
The man who called, a rational, sober-minded and eloquent sounding person, described having witnessed with his family a very strange cluster of distinctly red-orange lights, which consisted of 4-5 red lights "in the lead," followed by a single light which appeared to be "standing back from the others." The lights in the lead gave the impression of being in a "V" formation, somewhat like a wedge or boomerang in shape.
That was the first of many dozen calls that were received over the subsequent two days.
Subsequent calls then started pouring in to the Hot line from locations to the south of Paulden, AZ. The next calls received were from the vicinities of Prescott and Prescott Valley, approximately 50 miles north of Phoenix. Several individuals called from that vicinity to recount that approximately 8:17 p.m., they witnessed 4 or 5 very bright white lights pass overhead. Several of the observers reported that the object appeared to be triangular in shape, with a somewhat complex grouping of lights along its sides.
One of the observers in Prescott reported that the orientation of the distinctly white lights appeared to change while she and her family were observing the object. However, the lights formed a distinctly triangular pattern in the sky.
Another observer was standing outside with his wife and sons in Prescott Valley, when they noticed a cluster of lights to in the west-northwest of their position. The lights formed a triangular pattern, but all of them appeared to be red, with the exception of the light at the nose of the object, which was distinctly white. The object, or objects, which had been observed for approximately 2-3 minutes with binoculars, then passed directly overhead the observers, they were seen to "bank to the right," and they then disappeared in the night sky to the southeast of Prescott Valley…
Even though the night was very quiet, none of the observers described above heard any sound emanate from the object. All of them emphasized that the object "glided" through the sky, and made absolutely no noise whatsoever… All of the observers volunteered during their telephoned reports that they had strained their ears, trying to hear some sound from the object, but none was heard, which contributed to the eerie nature of the sighting.
The next sighting was reported from Dewey, AZ, located approximately 10 miles to the south of Prescott. Five adults and youth were driving north on Highway 69 to an appointment in Prescott, when they witnessed a very large cluster of lights, which formed a "V" shape in the sky. The driver pulled off the road into a grocery store parking lot, and all the occupants got out of their car in order to get a better look at the object. By this time, the object was directly above them, where it appeared to hover for several minutes.
The member of this group who called the Hot line reported that the object was so large that, if he clenched his fist and held it at arm's length, he could not cover the size of the object with his fist!
In addition, he reported that based on his flying experience, he estimated that the object was not over 1,000 feet above the ground. He emphasized that there was absolutely no sound emanating from the object—it was absolutely silent, and it was moving at a very slow pace, considerably slower for example than a light aircraft would have been seen to move at that (assumed) altitude.
He added that he could see a small, private aircraft in the vicinity of the object overhead, and that the aircraft appeared to be heading in the direction of the Prescott airport. More about this aircraft is described below in the description of the alleged interception of the strange object by F-15’s farther to the south
One particularly noteworthy aspect of this observer’s report is that he had called both Prescott Airport, and Luke AFB to report the sighting. The female operator at Luke AFB volunteered to him that their switchboard had been deluged with reports about the strange object. Later statements from Luke AFB alleged that they had received no calls about the object.
The next calls to arrive were from Chino Valley, Tempe, Glendale, Phoenix, Kingman and Tucson…
Many people called from those areas, far too many to describe in detail. One of the most interesting reports, however, was from a young man, who identified himself as an "amateur astronomer," who resides in west Phoenix. His description of the object, which he saw to the west of his home, appeared to be a cluster of solid, unblinking lights, which moved in an unwavering procession from the north to south. He could discern, he thought, that each of the individual lights in fact was two smaller lights. Also, he reported that he observed two aircraft in the vicinity of the object, one of which appeared to turn away from the object to the west, and the other which turned to the east.
Another interesting report was submitted by a young mother, who stood outside her home, located in Phoenix approximately 1 mile south of Camel Back Mountain, and watched the object with her children for 5 minutes. She reported that the object was directly overhead her house, and that it was larger than her clenched fist when held at arm's length! The object appeared to have lights along its sides, such that the lights gave the viewers on the ground the impression of a "boomerang" or "arrowhead" shape.
After approximately 5 minutes, the object began to move slowly to the south. However, before the object disappeared from sight to the south, it appeared to "fire" out to the front of it a red beam of "laser light" for an instant. Then, as it moved slowly to the south, the lights of the front and sides of the object seemed to dim and fade from sight. There were no lights visible on the aft end of the craft as it moved away from the observers. The object just disappeared from sight in the southern sky…
The object was next seen in Tucson, where a man watched the formation of lights for what he estimates to be 15 minutes…from 8:45 to after 9:00 p.m., he estimates. He reported to us that the lights had come from the northwestern sky, maneuvered overhead for 5-10 minutes, and then moved off to the south in "nose to tail" formation, disappearing from sight as they moved over the mountains.
The last location to report was Kingman AZ, where a young man, en route to Los Angeles, called from a phone booth to report having seen a large and bizarre cluster of lights moving slowly in the northern sky.
Summary of Phoenix UFO Sightings
What the object was is still unexplained, but there are some things that can be ruled out, based on the reports that have been submitted to us so far :
Aircraft - The object could not have been any type of conventional aircraft, since 1) it was witnessed by many people to hover silently, and 2) because it apparently covered the distance between Paulden and Prescott, AZ - not less than 30 miles - in approximately 1-2 minutes. Also, the lights seen on it were not consistent with any type of strobe lights, or navigation lights on any type of known aircraft, either private or commercial.
Balloon - The object moved too fast to be a balloon.
Hale-Bopp Comet - The object moved over large portions of the sky in very short periods of time. This is not consistent with a comet, which is virtually stationary, relative to other heavenly bodies
Hence, the object remains unexplained—and extremely bizarre.
One more personal report is that on March 27 2007 at 2:00 PM (10-yrs after the famous March 1997 Phoenix Lights) I was swimming at the neighborhood community pool in far north Phoenix area when I witnessed a very strange looking silver or gray colored object moving down from mid-level height in the clear blue sky, from right to left. It appeared to be nearby, I would estimate about 2 to 4 miles away. As far as its viewable size goes, it was a little larger than the size of your thumbnail when held at arms-length.
It was heading to the ground at about the speed of an airplane, at roughly a 45 degree angle. There was no sound. There were also no other objects in the sky and no aircraft in the area (after the object disappeared I made a point to look around very closely and there was nothing in the area, and also no noise, both as it was falling from the sky, or thereafter). The object was visible to me for about 10-seconds before disappearing from view near ground level, eventually blocked from view by the roof of a nearby building.
Now for the interesting part of this report. It was clearly visible and relatively nearby and here is the amazing part - the exact shape of a boat or airplane propeller (traveling by itself, with absolutely nothing behind the 'propeller'). This UFO object had 4 or 5 very obvious moving 'blades' and attached to a center hub, and rotating at a steady but a slow rotation speed, in a counter-clockwise rotation. The objects estimated actual size was significantly larger than a propeller could be. Again, there was no noise and no airplanes or helicopters anywhere in the area at the time and no later reports of any incidents in the local media. This was an extremely bizarre and unexplained event. Reported on April 2 2007 by D.M. Green
