Former Arizona Gov. Admits UFO Sighting On Night of Phoenix Lights
By Jon Shanks
Mar 18, 2007

Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington ridiculed an unexplained event
that took place in the skies over Phoenix ten years ago. An event now
commonly known as 'the Phoenix Lights' is actually a compilation of
events and unexplained sightings that took place on March 13, 1997 from
the Hoover Dam on the Nevada/Arizona border all the way to Tucson,
Arizona and at several points in between. The most publicized of the
sightings that night came at around 10:00pm. Many witnesses saw and
videotaped an array of lights that appeared over the desert southwest of
Metropolitan Phoenix including CK Rairden who contributes to this
report. Some believe those lights were flares, others are not quite so
sure. Those bright orbs, and the other unexplained events of that
evening are now commonly known as 'The Phoenix Lights.'

On Thursday June 19, 1997, Symington said he would order the Arizona
Department of Public Safety to look into the mysterious lights that were
spotted over Phoenix two months earlier. He called a press conference
and television viewers tuned in. Instead of anything serious Symington
introduced a handcuffed member of his staff in an alien costume as the
culprit responsible for the Phoenix Lights. He pulled off the 'alien
mask' and it was an aide named Jay Heiler.

Many were laughing, others were a bit miffed that the governor found it
necessary to waste everyone's time with such a stunt. Now in a stunning
interview with the Daily Courier in Prescott, the former governor admits
that he was a witness to a UFO on that night in March. "It was enormous
and inexplicable," he said in an exclusive interview from Phoenix
printed in the Courier. What he saw was a V-shaped craft that witnesses
reported seeing that night throughout the state. "Who knows where it
came from? A lot of people saw it, and I saw it too," Symington said.

***

The report written by Leslie Kean notes witnesses described the gigantic
triangular and V-shaped unidentified objects as "gliding slowly and
silently across the sky." Witnesses throughout the state "estimated that
the eerie, lighted vehicles were bigger than many football fields, up to
a mile long."

They reported that these were clearly solid, technological flying
machines that blocked out the stars - not merely lights. So - if Mr.
Symington did see this unexplained craft - why did the governor make a
joke of the event? He explains that Arizona was "on the brink of
hysteria" about the UFO sighting at the time, and the frenzy was
building. "I wanted people to lighten up and calm down, so I introduced
a little levity. But I never felt that the overall situation was a
matter of ridicule," he says.

***

In the interview Symington says that he called the commander at Luke Air
Force Base, the general in charge of the National Guard, and the head of
the Department of Public Safety to request an explanation. None of them
had answers, and they, too, were "perplexed," he says.

That explanation jives with what most reports gave in the days after the
event. Broadcast reports after the events of march 13, 1997 asked
several officials for an explanation and few were given. Months later,
a member of the Maryland National Guard claimed that a squadron from
that state had been in Arizona and had dropped 'flares' over the
Goldwater Gunnery Range in the Arizona desert near Yuma. The delay in
response, combined with the thousands of witnesses and the videotapes of
the 10:00pm unexplained lights are what make 'The Phoenix Lights' one of
the largest and most talked about sightings in UFO history.

***

US Senator John McCain called for an investigation ten years ago. Now,
according to the report, the former governor also says the incident
remains unsolved, and deserves an official investigation. Don't expect
one anytime soon.

CK Rairden contributed to this report

On the web: http://www.freedomofinfo.org/

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272612175.shtml

Former Arizona Gov. Admits UFO Sighting On Night of Phoenix Lights
By Jon Shanks
Mar 18, 2007

Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington ridiculed an unexplained event
that took place in the skies over Phoenix ten years ago.