AP PRESSWhat happened
~8 PM: a silent rigid V crossed ~200 miles of Arizona. ~10 PM: an arc of amber lights over the Goldwater Range — the famous footage.
The record on unidentified anomalous phenomena
Almost every documentary about March 13, 1997 shows you the wrong footage. The famous shimmering arc over Phoenix was the second event of that night — and it has an explanation: military flares, dropped on a training range, sinking behind a ridgeline. This channel considers that settled.
The first event is the file: a rigid, silent V that crossed two hundred miles of Arizona at around eight o'clock, occluding stars as it went. Among the thousands who saw it was the sitting governor — who staged an alien-costume press conference to kill the story, and confessed ten years later that he was a witness.
~8 PM: a silent rigid V crossed ~200 miles of Arizona. ~10 PM: an arc of amber lights over the Goldwater Range — the famous footage.
Thousands of witnesses incl. pilots, police, and Gov. Fife Symington (revealed 2007).
The 10 PM lights: Maryland ANG A-10s dropping illumination flares — confirmed, and consistent with the footage.
10 PM event explained; 8 PM object never explained
An amateur astronomer said his telescope resolved the V into aircraft in formation, and perception research shows the eye stitches lights into solid shapes. What that reading must carry: total silence over a metropolitan area, star-occlusion reports along two hundred miles, and a governor — a former Air Force officer — who described an object, not a formation. Both readings are in the episode.