PHOENIX — It was a day 27 years ago that thousands of people in Arizona will remember for the rest of their lives.
On March 13, 1997, many Valley residents reported witnessing mysterious lights and objects moving across Arizona's skies. Hundreds of people called the National UFO Reporting Center to describe the lights as they passed overhead.
Residents described seeing orbs of light appearing in a V-shaped formation, sometimes hovering in one place for several minutes or hours at a time.
The event would become known worldwide simply as the Phoenix Lights.
Fife Symington, Arizona's governor at the time, revealed in 2007 that he witnessed one of the UFOs during the 1997 event. Symington said in an episode of "UFO Hunters" that the U.S. military would not give him information on the bizarre lights.
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In 2018, Kurt Russell revealed to Jimmy Kimmel that he saw the lights that evening when flying into Sky Harbor Airport.
The U.S. Air Force said the lights were likely military flares dropped during a training exercise at the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range, according to the Arizona Republic.
The strange phenomenon has since been the subject of multiple investigations, documentaries, and has served as the inspiration for multiple horror films.
Arizona still a hotbed for UFO activity
Out of all 50 states, Arizona is No. 7 for the highest reports of UFO sightings in the nation, according to recent data from the National UFO Reporting Center.
Since 1974, the center has gathered information from across the world on unknown lights and objects in the sky. More than 170,000 reports have been processed by the center-- with almost 5,000 of those reports coming from right here in Arizona.
Recently, the center released an interactive map that shows all reported sightings across the world. Users can click on individual dots on the map to see information about the report including the date and description of the sighting. Some reports even include video and photos of the sighting.
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