The Phoenix Lights

Thursday 13th March 1997, 3:00pm - Friday 14th March 1997, 5:30pm

The Phoenix Lights are widely regarded to be one of the most sighted UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) events in history. Thousands of residents of Nevada and Arizona witnessed a series of lights in the sky. Witnesses in Phoenix saw a 'string' of lights appear over the South & Estrella Mountain Ranges, whilst other witnesses saw a V shaped craft with 5 lights embedded into it's underside travelling from Henderson, Nevada, through to Phoenix. At 3am on the morning of March 14th 1997, an airman from Luke Air Force Base telephoned Peter Davenport, the Director of the National UFO Reporting Center, that at approximately 8:30pm the military ''encountered something over Phoenix, Arizona - they didn't know what it was''. The reason he called at 3am was because he wanted to share what happened from a military perspective right after the event, on the basis that he had not yet been told not to discuss the incident. He also noted that the military intercepted the craft. Officials later claimed that the lights were caused by flares dropped from Air National Guard A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft, flying in formation out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona as part of 'Operation Snowbird'. Attempts were made by the Air National Guard to recreate the lights after much public concern and scrutiny, but the results were not similar.
Dr Lynne D Kitei, a witness, has spent nearly 30 years researching and proving that what occurred in March 1997 were not military flares part of Operation Snowbird, but was a mass UAP sighting. The Phoenix Lights mass sighting was also witnessed by Frances Emma Barwood, Vice-Mayor of Phoenix, and J Fife Symington III, the 19th governor of Arizona. Kurt Russell, the actor, was flying his light aircraft into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on the evening of 13th March 1997 and reported the lights to Air Traffic Control.

The Phoenix Lights commonly refer to the mass sighting event of Thursday 13th March 1997, when residents of Nevada and Arizona reported seeing a series of unexplained lights in the sky. The lights have been referred to as a 'string' of white-amber orbs, while others reported witnessing a ''huge V shaped craft'' travelling silently across Paradise Valley, north of Phoenix. Much of the information on this page is taken from interview and information collected by first-hand witnesses of the lights. Prior to the 'mass sighting' of March 13th 1997, lights were first witnessed over the Estrella Mountain Range north of Phoenix on Monday 6th February 1995. These lights were photographed by Dr Lynne D Kitei from her home in Phoenix and consisted of four equidistant orange lights in a row over the city. The four lights were sighted in the same location as subsequent sightings. In addition to the row of lights, two close 'orbs' were also photographed hovering in the bottom left corner. The last photograph of the lights on 6th February 1995 shows the four lights having broken away from their equidistant formation and now in two groups of two in close proximity. The two orbs were still visible at the bottom of the photograph, but in a different location to that of the first.

A second sighting of a formation of lights was witnessed and photographed by Dr Kitei on Thursday 23rd January 1997. The lights appeared in the same location as the sighting of some 2 years earlier, and were in the same location as the lights photographed 2 months later during the 'mass-sighting event'. Initially photographed as a 'string' of lights, later photographs allegedly depict a V-shaped 'array' of 5 lights, with two trailing lights, described by many witnesses as witnessed again gliding through the state during the mass sighting 2 months later. The series of four photographs taken on 23rd January 1997 by Dr Kitei and published on her website, thephoenixlights.net, depict the initial string of lights transitioning from the 'string' to a definite 'V-shaped' formation. 

The mass sighting event of Thursday 13th March 1997 is the 'crescendo' of the sightings at Phoenix. The reason so many people witnessed the event was largely due to clear skies and the near-perfect conditions to view the exceptionally bright Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) that was visible during that period. Hale-Bopp was one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades. As a result, that night, many people were 'looking up'. Dr Lynne D Kitei, who lives mountain side at Paradise Valley in Phoenix, had a panoramic view of the city and the distant South and Estrella Mountain Ranges, that intersect to the south-west of Phoenix. she always had a camera nearby as the photographs and ''collects sunsets''. That night, she photographed the lights over Phoenix, and prior and subsequent sightings and events. Dr Lynne has since said that she is aware of witnesses having reported lights and craft in Nevada as early as 3pm in the afternoon of 13th March, with reports spanning until 5am the following morning, 14th March. 

The majority of reports begin at 7:55pm MST, when a witness in Henderson, Nevada, reported seeing a large 'V-shaped' object travelling in a south-eastern direction. 20 minutes later a police officer in Paulden, Arizona, reported seeing a ''cluster of reddish-orange lights disappear over the southern horizon''. A short time later, reports started coming in from Prescott Valley, Arizona, where Tim Ley, his wife Bobbi, son and grandson first saw the lights while driving. They later estimated that the lights they saw were approximately 65 miles away from their location. At first the lights appeared to them as five separate and distinct lights in a boomerang/arc shape ''as if they were on top of a balloon'', bu they roon realised the lights seemed to be moving closer to them. Over the next ten minutes, the lights came closer, and the distance between them increased, all the while changing formation from the Arc to an upturned 'V' formation. When the lights were a couple of miles away from their position, the family could see a definite shape of a craft, that looked like a ''60-degree carpenter's square with the five lights set into it, with one at the front and two on each side''. They estimated that the object was approximately 100-150 feet above them, travelling so slowly that it appeared to be hovering silently. It passed over their heads and went through a V shaped opening in the peals of the mountain range in the direction of the Piestewa Peak Mountain and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. It was at about this time that the actor Kurt Russell, who was flying into Phoenix Sky Harbor, reported seeing the lights to air traffic control.

By 8:30pm, the lights were approaching Phoenix with witnesses in Glendale, a suburb north-west of the city, saw the formation pass over at a high altitude. This is one of the few contradictory reports in this case, as the previous sitness at Henderson, Nevada, reported the 'V' shaped craft with embedded lights being very low. Dr Lynn believes there were a number of formations that evening, that formed a 'parade'. The witnesses in Glendale state that the lights were high enough to be obscured by the thin clouds. Mitch Stanley, an amateur astronomer and witness was located in Scottsdale, Arizona, observed the lights at a high altitude and described them to be ''flying in formation''. Stanley stated that they were quite clearly individual aircraft.

At about 10pm, a large number of people in and around Phoenix reported ''a row of brilliant lights hovering in the sky, or slowly falling''. Many photographs and videos were taken, some of which are attached below. Robert Sheaffer, a freelance writer and UFO sceptic, described the Phoenix Lights as ''perhaps the most widely witnessed UFO event in history''.

Following the 'mass-sighting' event of March 13th 1997, Dr Lynn Kitei has witnessed and photographed similar lights and unexplained aerial phenomena from her home. Notably sightings of similar lights on 14th January 1998, 10th October 2001, 16th September 2002 and finally September 2003 (although no exact date has been given). In addition to the repeated sightings of lights, she also noticed that in a couple of her photographs of sunsets taken in November and December 2000, a rod/cylinder shaped object can be seen in the photographs which were visible in the photo negatives, but not to the human eye at the time.

A short biography of Dr Lynn D Kitei, M.D. Primary witness and owner of thephoenixlights.net.

Dr. Lynne Kitei is an internationally acclaimed physician and health educator who pushed aside her successful medical career to pursue The Phoenix Lights book and internationally award-winning Documentary project. She was leading the cutting edge era of early disease detection and prevention as Chief Clinical Consultant of the Imaging-Prevention-Wellness Center at the world renowned Arizona Heart Institute in Phoenix, Arizona until coming forward, after seven years of anonymity, as a key witness to the historic and still unexplained mass sighting throughout Arizona on March 13, 1997. Dr. Lynne graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Secondary Science Education, with minors in Communication and Voice from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. 1970 and an MD Degree from Temple University School of Medicine 1974. She completed her postgraduate studies at the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Before her medical training, Dr. Lynne appeared in over 30 featured and starring roles in professional musical comedies including Alice in Wonderland with Sherman Hemsley, Oklahoma starring Gordon MacRae, Guys & Dolls starring Betty Grable, and understudied for Barbara Eden in The Sound of Music. She also played the role of "Florence Arizona" in the 20th Century box office hit Raising Arizona starring Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, and John Goodman. Dr. Lynne has been called the "woman pioneer" of medical communications in TV Guide after creating and producing innovative TV News health reports for NBC in Philadelphia in 1976. Since that time, Dr. Lynne has dedicated over 50 years to global public awareness, wellness, and health education. She has appeared as the resident health reporter for NBC affiliates in Philadelphia, PA and Phoenix, AZ plus USA Cable, as well as featured in 100s of national/international TV & Radio Shows, including Coast to Coast AM, ITunes, Spotify, Channel 8 News LV, NV with George Knapp, Tamron Hall Show, NewsNation, CNN, ABC, CBS & FOX TV local & national News, PBS, Gaia, WB, NBC Japan, Spanish & India TV, NBC Japan, MSNBC, Dateline NBC, Netflix, Comcast, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, HULU, the History, Science, CW, Travel, Discovery & National Geographic Channels.

As the producer, writer, and director of the "You Make It!" health video and workbook curriculum series, Dr. Lynne has been recognized with the Telly Bronze Award in 1995, the National Education Film & Video Festival Silver Apple Award in 1994, the New York International Film Festival Finalist Award in 1992, and 1993, and many others. She worked under the auspices of the Arizona Community Foundation for 20 years to help fund and distribute her revolutionary prevention/education programs to schools, churches, youth groups and libraries throughout Arizona. Just Say KNOW to AIDS, Just Say KNOW To Drugs, Teen Pregnancy... Children Having Children and Drugs Don't Make IT! have been distributed worldwide by Discovery Education since the 1990's. Dr. Lynne's innovative and renowned endeavors have been featured in publications including TV Guide Magazine, New Dawn Magazine, Runner Magazine, Physician's Management Magazine, Phoenix Magazine, UFO Magazine, National News Network, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Spirit Guide, L.A. Times Magazine, East Valley Tribune, What is Enlightenment Magazine, National UFO Magazine, Paradise Magazine, Brazil's Revista UFO Magazine, Open Minds Magazine, New York Post UFO Series and numerous Arizona Republic Newspaper articles. She has also been recognized in the "Who's Who of American Women" and was chosen as Woman of the Year in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Lynne has been a keynote speaker at the University of Arizona Tucson Medical Center with Dr. John Mack, Bay Area UFO Conference, Hollywood National UFO Conference, Borders Book Tour, Barnes & Noble Book Tours, Washington D.C. X-Conference, MUFON International Symposium in Denver CO, MUFON International UFO Symposium in Philadelphia PA., MUFON International UFO Symposium - Youth Program in Orange County CA, Cosmic International Conference, Italy, Glendale AZ City Hall, Paradise Valley Community College Performing Arts Centre, Arizona State University Physical Science Auditorium, ASU Anthropology Museum Exhibit, Atlantic Coast UFO Conference at the Trump Plaza, Atlantic City N.J., Tri-City Prep H.S. in Prescott AZ, Portal to Ascension Presentation, Sedona Awakening Conference, George Noory Live in Scottsdale AZ, UCLA and UNLV Skype interviews, Un-X Tour in Kansas City, International Institute of Human Sciences in Montreal Canada, CSETI Conference in Rio Rico AZ, Edinburgh Out of this World Conference in Texas, Sun City Grande Learning Center, International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills, AZ, Extremente International Conference in Milan, Italy, Mcmenamins Mission Theater in Portand Oregon, Contact in the Desert Conference in Joshua Tree CA, Contact in the Desert Conference in Indian Wells CA, Starworks USA Conference in Dallas Texas and Laughlin NV, Scottsdale's Harkins Shea Cinema - sold out screenings and presentations since 2005.

At the time of this page's publication, I am in the process of arranging an interview with Dr Lynne D Kitei, M.D. More details to follow.

Sources of information and photographs:

https://thephoenixlights.net/photos/ [Dr Lynne's personal website]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights [Phoenix Lights wikipedia article]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1XhyTe4Zs [In-depth YouTube video detailing the mass-sighting event and interviews with witnesses]