'UFO Witness Episode 5': What were Phoenix Lights? Discovery+ docu tells real story about Arizona's UFO sighting
More than two decades ago in 1997, more than 20,000 people 'witnessed' bright lights hovering over Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, the bright, flashing amber orbs of light floating in the air had wowed one and all across the country. Newsprint, headlines and videos were only talking about the lights. Were these UFOs? Many years later, these mysterious lights would be known as Arizona's most infamous UFO sighting. In the latest UFO documentary series from Discovery+ 'UFO Witness', it looks like we will get all answers about that night.
Discovery+'s new documentary 'UFO Witness' promises to take viewers up close with Earth's close encounters with extraterrestrial beings. Whether it is all misinformation, a hoax, conspiracy, or whatever else you might like to deem it, but the conversation surrounding UFOs and extraterrestrial beings is one that continues to tease the curiosity of one and all.
Through eight one-hour episodes, the documentary series follows former federal agent and paranormal investigator Ben Hansen as he reopens case files from former Project Blue Book investigator Jennie Zeidman's exhaustive research spanning decades of some of the most astounding UFO encounters in history. These files have been reportedly hidden from the public for decades. Zeidman, the last surviving member of the Air Force’s top-secret UFO investigation called Project Blue Book, which looked into sightings from 1952 through 1970, unfortunately died in April 2020 but left plenty of material.
What were the Phoenix Lights?
Phoenix Lights was an inexplicable phenomenon in 1997. People knew to a certain extent that this is what defines a UFO sighting, but for many among the eyewitnesses, it was too glorious to be true. Around 10 pm on March 13, 1997, on a clear night with no breeze, a string of lights appeared to the southwest shaped like a boomerang. they appeared to be motionless or traveling very slowly. For at least five to 10 minutes, these light remained shimmering in the sky and were spotted by thousands of people.
Lynne Kitei, a respected physician, was not only an eyewitness from that night but also recorded the event. She went on to write a 222-page book, 'The Phoenix Lights', where she revealed the findings of her research of similar sightings around the world. She also made the documentary 'The Phoenix Lights ... We Are Not Alone'. "It's never been about me; it's about the data," Kitei has reportedly said. "To present it I had to come forward, to tell people what I know."
Despite the numerous claims of sightings, the US government would refuse to even acknowledge the event. In the coming days after the spotting, air traffic controllers at Sky Harbor International Airport would tell reporters and UFO investigators that they spotted nothing on radar. In fact, authorities would go out of their way to cover up the incident. Officials at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson would report that no military maneuvers were taking place that night at the Barry M Goldwater Range to the west of Gila Bend. Two months later, they would change their story to say that the person on duty that night failed to look at the proper logbook.
Another witness to the incident, the then Phoenix city councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood reportedly said that while she did not assume the lights were UFOs as the media inferred, she hoped for the unknown. "I don't know what it was, but I'm a lot more open to that thing coming from elsewhere," Barwood reportedly said. "What makes us think we're the only intelligent being in the whole entire universe?"
In Episode 5 of the docuseries 'The Mothership Returns', Hansen launches an investigation to find out how these mass UFO sightings are covered up. It begins streaming on Discovery+ on Thursday, January 28, 2021.