You said — “It was a bunch of typical undefined blobs, (”they only come out at night”) and it turned out to be a hoax. Balloons and flares.”
Now, I haven’t kept up with these kinds of things and reports and so on. So, that’s why I ask the questions. But, the thing I was getting at here, is that I did see newspaper reports afterwards and people’s comments on it (but not so much in the way of pictures). So, I was trying to “match up” the massive sighting that a lot of people saw (over a period of time and quite a distance, according to many different people) — and see if “pictures” matched with what people *actually saw*.
What I did see in the reports from people who spoke about it, and there were *many* who did — it couldn’t have been flares and balloons, because I read numerous accounts from people that said the “thing” (whatever it was) moved slowly overhead and blocked out starlight behind it’s shape (being “massive”) and then slowly passed overhead. This seemed to come from several.
So, that just doesn’t match balloons and flares.
And so, here’s the thing, if people were seeing what they were reporting — then where are all the pictures? That’s what I’m wondering... It’s not that I’m doubting their personal reports, because they obviously did see what they were reporting. It’s just that I’m wondering what happened to all the cameras, like you were saying...
The only pictures I personally saw were the stereotypical blobs. Cameras still aren’t that good at night, but what of radar sightings? Thermal imaging?
As for something so huge that it blotted out the stars? Who knows? I know it’s almost impossible to judge size and distance of an unknown in the night sky. If you can hear the airplane, then you have an idea of how big it is, but likely not how high. A meteor, on the other hand? Was it 10 miles high from the horizon or 100? A hundred miles from you or 500?
And I think of what passes for mass “entertainment” in this world, and I wonder how many of those who claimed they saw the UFO’s also watch TV or wanted to cash in on the “needle in the Pepsi can” craze, know what I mean?
SORRY. Didn’t preview.
I’d have to dogpile.com to track down the Real Estate agent who’s researched so much of it for over 10 years. His presentation is quite good. And, there’s a documentary movie or some such out on it.
IIRC, the researcher said that most folks were reluctant to share their photos because they didn’t want the hassles—neither from the notoriety nor from the government.
However, the researcher and the documentary maker had tracked down some interesting photos.
I think they are available on the net.
The flares came out around 22:00 or some such—quite obviously as a government disinformation stunt that failed miserably for anyone with any brains.
IIRC, the shots from the MD’s 35 mm movie camera were analyized quite extensively. And when compared with the shots of the flares—there was nothing similar except that they were different types of lights.
The UFO lights were quite of a different color composition and rock steady in alignment etc. etc. etc.
The flares much later in the night acted like . . . well . . . flares! DOH.
That is, they were lit for varying lengths of time. They did not stay in alignment the least bit. There was flickering etc. etc. etc.
The 911 call center management tried—evidently after being given orders to do so—insist that there weren’t many calls. However, the WORKERS at the center—some of whom were interviewed—insisted that they were swamped for an extended period of time. I forget how long.
A reliable guesstimate by folks researching the call center and other info was that there were more than 10,000 witnesses.
Certainly it’s plausible that from 10,000 witnesses there would be some good shots.
It’s somewhat similar to the Chicago airport UFO . . . there were a dozen or so folks seen in the parking lot—most of them taking photos with various kinds of cameras and cell phones. Virtually none of them have surfaced. Those shots would have been in broad daylight and not that far away from a rather large UFO.
That Real Estate agent has a website. I reported on his stuff when I reported on the Aztec conference that year. I don’t recall if it was last year or the year before.
Let me see if I can dig him up . . .
Here’s a good website with a good opening shot:
http://www.ufocasebook.com/phoenixlights.html
This would enable an estimate of the craft being a whopping one mile or more in length! The color of its lights were described as “blue-white,” to “yellow-white,” to “amber.” Again, these differences of description do not necessitate there being more than one object. During the crafts fast moving period, it was estimated to be moving at Mach 2-3. As it slowed down as if posing to be filmed, the speed dropped to an estimated 10-15 MPH.
At one point over Sky Harbor, it reportedly hovered for several minutes. The object was also reported to change shapes, speeds, and colors, as it made its way across the skies of Arizona.
Between 9:00 and 9:30 PM on the 13th, one extraordinary description was made by a family in Mesa. They said that an enormous craft with a distinctive structure flew over their area. They described a triangle-shaped object with lights at the three corners, and another larger light in its center. Amazingly, they could clearly see panels on the craft which were in a grid pattern.
There were also, about this same time, several reports of two round objects which seemed to detach from the larger “V” shaped object, only to later rejoin the mother-ship. One witness described the “V” shaped mother-ship dividing itself into two separate craft as it moved toward the city of Tucson.
Another dramatic description of the mother-ship was made by a group of real estate agents who had subdivided property over the northern part of Phoenix. They would also get a close-up view of the gigantic disc. They estimated the craft to be a staggering two miles wide as it flew at a low altitude near Phoenix. They could see dozens of bright lights along the leading edges, and also a row of windows with “silhouettes of people.”
It also seems highly probably that for some reason, the giant craft turned off its lights, as observers could see only the windows with what appeared to be people shadowed in the glow of the inside. Another family got a brightly lit view of the unknown object, and described its color as “flat blue-black, like the color of a shotgun barrel.”
Among the most reliable witnesses of the craft’s movements that first night were two airplane pilots, one retired from an airline, and another from Vietnam, who was also a U. S. Marshall. Though seeing the object at different times and places, both men described a craft of “immense size,” measuring up to a mile long. The Marshall could also see the city lights of Phoenix reflecting from the bottom of the massive object, while it “blocked out the stars.”
One of the pilots also videotaped the UFO, but had the tape confiscated in a “men in black” encounter. In a completely separate incident, a group of witnesses had reported a “huge discoid” craft which was “larger than Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University.” This object was hovering just above tree tops at the west end of Sky Harbor runway between 2:00 and 3:00 AM about two weeks prior to March 13.
Military Involvement
It was almost inevitable that the United States Air Force would become involved in an event of this magnitude, and the Phoenix lights mystery would be no exception. While driving down Interstate-I-17 from Camp Verde, a truck driver had been seeing two amber colored UFOs moving ahead of him southward for two whole hours. His destination was a materials plant near Luke Air Force Base. Upon arriving there, the two UFOs hovered nearby.
While his truck was being loaded, the driver walked upon a pile of materials to get a better look at the two UFOs. He could make out two identical “toy, top-like amber orbs” with a white glow to them. A band of red lights pulsated on the craft as it hovered near the Luke AFB runway. Suddenly, two F-16s “blasted out of Luke with their afterburners on full.” Soon, a third plane followed, and all three made a direct run toward the hovering UFOs.
As the first two jets were about to reach the UFOs, the unknown objects shot straight upward, and disappeared “in an instant.” The two jets flew right through the exact spot the UFOs had previously occupied. A Luke ground crewman later confirmed to NUFORC that the driver’s account was true. He also stated that upon returning to the base runway, one of the pilots had to be helped from his cockpit. He was visibly shaken from what had just happened.
According to Peter Davenport of the NUFORC one of the more intriguing reports was submitted by a young man who claimed to be an Airman stationed at Luke Air Force Base, located to the west of Phoenix in Litchfield Park. He telephoned the National UFO Reporting Center at 3:20 a.m. on Friday, some eight hours after the sightings on the previous night, and reported that two USAF F-15c fighters had been scrambled from Luke AFB, and had intercepted one of the objects.
Although the presence of F-15s could never be confirmed, the airman provided detailed information which proved to be highly accurate, based on what investigators would reconstruct from witnesses over subsequent weeks and months. Two days after his first telephone call, the airman called to report that he had just been informed by his commander that he was being transferred to an assignment in Greenland. He has never been heard from again since that telephone call.
I’ll try and post more in the next post . . .