Remember, an airliner is not gonna have its landing lights on at any point south of you. Sky Harbor is perpendicular to a viewing point in Chandler. The jet path from flights coming N. into Phoenix (from Tucson, Cabo, Hermisillo, Guaymas, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and ZIH (only a few a week) goes up to just S. of Chandler and turns at a right angle W or E to come in for landing. The landing lights aren't turned on usually until that turn, and with the exeption of TUS flights, they all come into PHX before, or just after sundown.
I have seen the flares up close, close enough to see the parachutes they are on, they are bright, bright enough to illuminate the ground beneath them, they can easily be seen from many miles away.
hummmmmmmmmm food, for thought
"Remember, an airliner is not gonna have its landing lights on at any point south of you"
I don't know about Phoenix, but as you know, in most large terminal areas, aircraft have their landing lights on as much as 40 miles out.
I do have one funny UFO story...My last US residence was in a small country town, 50 miles east of Memphis.
One local resident was convinced that UFOs were close to town and he had been observing them for the last 5 nights.
They were taking off every night, just after dark, from a grove of trees at the end of a large field.
The local town cop and myself went out to observe this strange phenomena.
Sure enough, as soon as it was dark, the orbs came rising out of the far away trees.
Well, I laughed as I knew they were the landing lights of departing aircraft from MEM International, 50 miles away.