The truth is really out there

More than 2 dozen UFO ‘sightings’ reported in Arizona this year with state always among top reports

By Melissa Rosequist
Mail | Twitter: @mrosequist_

Imagine spotting something in the sky that doesn’t look like an airplane or anything you’ve seen before. What is it?

This is a question thousands of people have asked themselves as they gaze into the sky with wonderment.

Are unidentified flying objects real?

Judging by their popularity in pop culture and society, along with the number of UFO sightings reported in Arizona recently and historically, it’s hard to deny many people do believe in UFOs. Perhaps, people are just more comfortable admitting they believe in the extraterrestrials.

In 1997, a now well-known “Phoenix Lights” event took place that again put the Valley and Arizona in the center of the search for extraterrestrial visitation. Between 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. on March 13, 1997, in a space of about 300 miles — from the Nevada line, through Phoenix to the edge of Tucson. Multiple people reported seeing various lights, with some witnesses describing what appeared to be a huge carpenter’s square-shaped UFO containing five spherical lights.

There were two supposed sightings, which were later to be caused by pilot training programs. One of the Air National Guard based in Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson and a second at the Barry Goldwater Range in southwest Arizona.

More than 25 years later, that mass UFO event continues to attract attention — in large part thanks to Paradise Valley resident Dr. Lynne Kitei, a witness and documentarian to the sighting. Kitei now runs the Phoenix Lights Network, has written a bestselling book, published an award-winning film on the event and continues to do public events and speaking engagements on her experience. 

For Kitei, there is a vast amount of information not in the public realm, as well as disinformation about what took place over Arizona all those years ago.

Along with thousands of first-hand witnesses who reported light arrays and silent mile-wide craft, as well as optical experts. She rejects the notion what she saw, and has analyzed photographs of, were flares from military training.

“If the military did it, show me,” said Kitei. “Reenact it, do it again. Right before the third anniversary — three air national guard units came to town to show everyone the Phoenix Lights and failed. To date, the Phoenix Lights have never been recreated or explained, but they continue to appear worldwide.”

Sightings abound

UFO lore in Arizona goes beyond one single event. Supposed sightings are somewhat common. The video app TikTok is home to numerous UFO “sightings” — one coming out of Buckeye, posted on Feb. 2.

According to the National UFO Reporting Center, there have been 4,805 reported sightings of UFOs in the state since the mid 1970s. Out of 50 states, Arizona ranks ninth for amount of reported sightings — first place is California.

The most recent reported UFO sighting to the national center was on April 7 in Scottsdale. The report says it lasted 20 minutes, and the witness wrote: “It looked segmented, very flashy, as it randomly had the sun flashing off of it. Two segments aligned vertically.”

This Scottsdale report is one of 25 found on the reporting center’s website for 2023 in Arizona. The National UFO Reporting Center makes no claims as to the validity of the information in any of the posted reports, the website clarifies, adding that “obvious hoaxes have been omitted,” however most reports have been posted exactly as received in the author’s own words.

While UFOs have historically been denied by government officials, they have become a part of mainstream American culture. They can be used in marketing to draw consumers in. There are books, children’s movies, documentaries, beers, events, public attractions — countless things — all aligning themselves with aliens, UFOs and outer space culture.

Locally, Arizona Boardwalk near Scottsdale is hosting a UFO Experience exploring both the human and science fiction sides of extraterrestrial encounters and UFOs.

Kitei says some of the pop culture popularity can be attributed to the topic no longer being considered taboo.

“As we have seen with the packed houses at our annual Phoenix Lights anniversary event at Harkins Shea year after year, now that the UFO reality is becoming more mainstream — without stigma or ridicule — the general public feels more comfortable than ever attending a UFO event,” she said. “Another case in point is my sold-out Phoenix Lights presentation to an enthusiastic crowd at the AZ Boardwalk’s UFO Experience just last week. I trust that attendance at similar events will accelerate as the public’s fascination and thirst for credible knowledge of the anomalous aerial phenomena topic, including the Phoenix Lights, keeps growing.”

Activity of interest

The interest of UFOs and aliens is a hobby for some people, like California-based author and publicist Dan Harary, who claims to have had three UFO encounters. The first took place when he was a child, with his father, and inspired the writing of his book, "After They Came." A second encounter took place in the 1990s and then in the 2000s he sought out a UFO sighting by visiting a Washington location where the crafts are known to appear.

For three days, Harary and his girlfriend at the time attended lectures and learned about UFOs on this Washington state ranch during the night; each night, gazing at the sky hoping to see what the location was famous for. 

“They built a bonfire each night, and people would dance, sing and chant around the bonfire. We’d all be looking up at the sky,” Harary said.

It took until the third and final night for their dreams to come true.

“A giant craft from absolutely nowhere came directly over our heads, a couple hundred feet in the air — it looked like a big black tear drop. Underneath this thing, a brilliant emerald green light came on,” Harary said. “It flashed above our head four or five times, as if to say ‘Hello, we’re here’ ... a few seconds later this thing took off so fast. And, I cried. People cried, we were hugging, kissing and jumping up and down.” 

That took place in 2008, and Harary says he can still remember and feel the warmth in his heart when that took place.

“They fly around, look at us. The theory, according to Erich Von Daniken, is they helped craft us, nature our civilization along. They’re interested in us because they’re sort of our relatives — that’s what I believe,” said Harary.

According to the internet, Von Daniken believes structures such as the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and other artifacts from that period are products of higher technological knowledge.

If UFOs are visiting and “saying hello” to humans, why don’t they make more contact? Harary says there are several stories of people who have encountered aliens.

“They have landed, they have shown themselves, very selectively — they don’t land on the White House lawn or Times Square,” said Harary. “If they did that tomorrow we’d say ‘OK, now we know.’ But for whatever reason they choose not to.”

Evidence, or lack thereof

Officials at Luke Air Force Base report any unidentified aerial phenomenon, referred to as UAPs, to the Pentagon. The military does not call these flying objects UFOs.

Luke spokesman Sean Clements told the Daily Independent that locally they do not investigation any unidentified aerial phenomenon. When asked how many reports Luke Air Force Base has provided to the Pentagon in recent years, Clements said he didn’t know the number, nor how often reports are made of the flying phenomenon.

At the government level, unknown flying objects have made headlines in recent weeks as the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services held a hearing April 19 to receive testimony from a new anomaly resolution office. Director of that office, Sean Kirkpatrick, told legislators his office has more than 600 unidentified aerial phenomenons it is investigating — and that so far, no investigations were found to support theories of extraterrestrial beings.

“I want to underscore today that only a very small percentage of (unidentified aerial phenomenon) reports display signatures that could reasonably be described as ‘anomalous,’ Kirkpatrick told the senate subcommittee last month.

He says, the majority of unidentified objects reported demonstrate characteristics of balloons, unmanned aerial systems, clutter, natural phenomena or other readily explainable sources.

When an unidentified aerial phenomenon case is unresolved, it’s primary due to the lack of data associated with a case. He gave video examples of objects flying through the year; the videos were only a few seconds long, and showed something fly rapidly through the screen to a viewer. Kirkpatrick explained, it’s difficult to reach defendable conclusions when there is little to no evidence to evaluate, calling it “virtually impossible” to identify what the object seen in one of the videos was.

Managing Editor Melissa Rosequist can be reached at mrosequist@iniusa.org. We invite our readers to submit their civil comments pro or con on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.