The Phoenix Lights UFO: Flares, Formation, or Something Else?
Hidden History with Dr. Harini Bhat
On March 13, 1997, thousands of people across Arizona witnessed a massive, silent V-shaped formation of lights drifting low over the state,
Key takeaways
- The Phoenix Lights were witnessed by thousands across Arizona, with remarkably consistent descriptions of a silent, massive V-shaped formation moving slowly at low altitude.
- Eyewitnesses reported no engine noise, blinking lights, or wind—characteristics inconsistent with known aircraft or flares.
Main topics
- Phoenix Lights UFO sighting
- Comet Hale-Bopp's cultural impact in 1997
Notable quotes
"It was a mile-wide formation of these orbs. and I caught them head-on turning into a V." – Dr. Lynn Kitai
Conclusion
The Phoenix Lights remain one of the most compelling unsolved mysteries in UFO history. Despite
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:02) Are you the type to fall down an internet rabbit hole and not come up for hours? You'll love Crimes of Reddit, a new Crime House original with Sabrina Deanna Roga and Alexis Linklater. Every week, one host brings real true crime stories from Reddit while the other reacts completely blind. No prep, no spoilers, then they swap. It's a feeling of sending your group chat a thread at 2 a.m. that starts with, you have to see this. Except Sabrina and Alexis are in the chat with you. Follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or subscribe at Crimes of Reddit Pod on YouTube. Speaker 3 (0:37) This is Rewind. Speaker 2 (0:44) On the night of March 13th, 1997, thousands of people in Arizona saw something that shouldn't be possible. That spring, a comet called Hale-Bopp was blazing across the sky, the brightest comet most people had seen in their entire lives. So all over the state, families were out in their backyards, cameras ready, necks craned toward the stars. And that's when something else came into view. A massive, silent formation of lights in the shape of a comet. of a V, moving slowly south so low and so wide that some people swore it blocked out the stars behind it. It drifted over the whole state, from the edge of Nevada across Phoenix down toward Mexico, and then it was gone. So what really crossed the sky that night? A secret flight of jets? A trick of flares and comet fever? Or could it have been? the largest mass UFO sighting in American history. I'm Dr. Karini Bhatt, and this is Hidden History, a Rewind original powered by Pave Studios. On this show, we're exploring some of the most mysterious events from history that have yet to be fully explained, examining all the different theories from science to the supernatural and everything in between. From vanished civilizations and doomsday prophecies to paranormal experiences and unexplained phenomena, I'm looking at it all and I want you to join me. Before we begin, I'd love it if you could rate, review, and follow Hidden History. Your support allows our community to grow and for other people to discover the show. We're also on YouTube with full video that brings each episode to life. Just search at Hidden History Pod and subscribe. Today's episode is all about the Phoenix Lights. On one night in 1997, thousands of people across Arizona looked up it saw something in the sky they couldn't explain was it a formation of military jets flares dropped over a bombing range or a single silent craft the size of a city block floating right over their heads Speaker 2 (2:58) Whatever was really in the sky that night, there was a very real reason so many people in Arizona were already outside looking up. In the spring of 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp was putting on the show of a lifetime. It was so bright, you could see it with the naked eye for months, hanging there in the evening sky like a smudge of light with a tail. And here's a fun fact that tells you just how special it was. The last time Hale-Bopp swung past Earth around 2200 BC, woolly mammoths were still around. And after this recent pass in 1997, it won't be back for roughly another 2,500 years. So all across Arizona, people were rightfully treating it like an event. Backyard telescopes were out, cameras were loaded. If you're going to see something incredible in the sky, March of 1997 was the time to be looking. And the culture was primed for it too. This was the era of the X-Files, of late-night radio callers trading their own encounters, of a whole new-age fascination with what might be out there. So when someone in 1997 looked up and saw a strange light, it's not surprising they might think UFO, especially considering how much military activity goes on in the area. There's a reason the military loves the Arizona desert. Clear skies, dry air, and hundreds of miles of empty, restricted airspace where you can fly and train without bothering anyone. Every winter, Air National Guard units from colder parts of the country would fly south to Arizona to get their training hours in. A program nicknamed Operation Snowbird staged out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson. Think of it like spring training, but for fighter pilots. And southwest of Phoenix sits a massive stretch of off-limits desert called the Barry M. Goldwater Range, one of the largest military training areas in the country. It's the kind of place where jets practice maneuvers and where things get dropped out of the sky on purpose. On any given night in March, there is a very good chance somebody in a fighter jet was up there doing something bright. And all that activity did something to the people who lived out there. It made strange lights in the sky feel almost ordinary, which is part of what makes that one night in March so remarkable. Whatever crossed the sky over Arizona was strange enough to stop even people who were used to strange skies dead in their tracks. And it all came together into one of the strangest nights the state had ever seen. Hold on to that. Because as the sun went down on March 13th, the first phone calls were about to start coming in. And they weren't coming from Phoenix. They were coming from Nevada. The first reports came in around 730 in the evening from near Henderson, Nevada, just outside Las Vegas. People described bright lights moving south in a formation. And that formation... A rough V or boomerang is a detail that would stay strikingly consistent all night from one town to the next. Nothing panicked yet, just, hey, what is that? But as those lights drifted south into Arizona, the calls got stranger and more urgent. By around 8.15, the lights had reached Prescott in central Arizona. And now witnesses weren't describing random dots anymore. They were describing a shape, a V or a boomerang with several distinct lights spaced out along it, moving slowly and silently overhead. Not a plane or a helicopter, something that just glided. And this is where the descriptions start to get eerie. One family up in Prescott area reported watching the lights approach from the north. And as the formation passed over them, They said it wasn't a cluster of separate objects at all. It was one solid, dark, structured mass with the lights fixed to it as if they were all bolted to the same enormous frame. No blinking navigation lights, no strobes, no sound. One witness said it moved like it was in no hurry whatsoever. And whatever it was, it was headed straight for the biggest city in the state. Around 8.30, it reached Phoenix. This is the sighting that made history. People poured out of their houses. Neighbors stood in the street. Drivers pulled over on the highway and got out of their cars. Across the entire metro area, thousands of people looked up and saw the same thing. An enormous V of lights passing directly overhead. And here's what makes this event so hard to dismiss. The details people gave were remarkably consistent. whether they were in Glendale or Tempe or downtown Phoenix. It was silent, no engine roar, no rush of wind, none of the sound you'd expect from anything that big moving that low. It was slow, drifting, not streaking, and it was massive. Think city block big. Some witnesses said it was so massive that as it passed over them, it seemed to slide over the rooftops like a ceiling. For the minute or two it took to pass, a lot of people said the same strange thing. The whole world seemed to go quiet. One of those witnesses was a woman who would become one of the most important voices in this whole story. Dr. Lynn Kitai was a respected physician in Paradise Valley, just outside of Phoenix. That night, she looked out over the city and saw a set of amber orbs, and then watched them shift into formation. Years later, she described it like this, quote, It was a mile-wide formation of these orbs. and I caught them head-on turning into a V, end quote. Keita grabbed a camera and took pictures, but she didn't do anything with them, at least not publicly. She was a respected physician with a serious career, and she understood exactly what talking about a UFO would do to her reputation. So she sat on it. She would stay anonymous for seven years before she felt safe enough to come forward as a witness. Think about that for a second. A doctor was so afraid of being laughed at that she kept photographs of one of the biggest UFO events in history in a drawer for the better part of a decade. And that fear turns out to be central