Phoenix Lights UFO mystery celebrates its 25th anniversary

On March 13th, 1997, thousands of people witnessed either a series of stationary lights over the Phoenix, Arizona area or a set of lights in a triangular formation which passed over the state.

The phenomenon was also witnessed in neighboring Nevada and in the Mexican state of Sonora.

Even now, more than two decades later, the nature and origins of the Phoenix lights continue to remain a topic of heated debate. Some argue that the lights were extraterrestrial in nature, while others have dismissed the whole thing as little more than a routine military training exercise.

Some researchers have spent a large part of their lives attempting to determine what happened.

At the time, the United States Air Force identified the stationary lights as flares dropped by an A-10 Warthog aircraft, an explanation that has since been met with a considerable degree of controversy.

A similar phenomenon was also reported over the area in 2007 and 2008, however these were again attributed to military flares being dropped by aircraft from Luke Air Force Base.

The large object observed in the form of a triangular formation of lights, however, has seen fewer explanations, with even the governor of Arizona at the time describing it as “otherworldly.”

Even today, much of what happened that night in 1997 remains shrouded in mystery