Before anyone knew that Kurt Russell was the pilot who had phoned in the “Phoenix Lights” incident, 20,000 other residents also witnessed the alleged UFO sighting. One of these individuals was Dr. Lynne Kitei, who said that even though she had never been a believer in UFOs before, this event changed her mind.

“I don’t know what they were. But I know that they were. It was a mile-wide formation of these orbs, and I caught them head-on turning into a V.”

As others in Phoenix looked up at the sky and saw the same thing that Dr. Kitei and Kurt Russell were seeing, they immediately picked up their phones to try and find some sort of answer to the “Phoenix Lights” UFO sighting, NBC’s 12 News reports.

Area 51, another famous location of UFO sightings, just like the well-known ‘Phoenix Lights’ incident reported by Kurt Russell and seen by 20,000 residents. [Image by Dan Callister/Getty Images]

Kurt Russell witnessed the “Phoenix Lights” UFO sighting when he was flying with his son in Arizona and noticed that there were six extremely bright lights in the sky over the airport, Movie Web reported.

“I was flying him to go see his girlfriend, and we’re on approach, and I saw six lights over the airport — absolutely uniform — in a V-shape. Oliver said to me, I was just looking at him, I was coming in, we’re maybe a half a mile out, and Oliver said, ‘Pa, what are those lights?’ Then I kind of came out of my reverie and I said, ‘I don’t know what they are.’ He said, ‘Are we okay here?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna call in,’ and I reported it.”

This same V-shaped light display was witnessed by residents over a wide space of about 300 miles, and from the tip of Tucson to Nevada, as well as over Phoenix.

With so many Phoenix residents wondering if they had just witnessed a UFO sighting, explanations were slow and not forthcoming until Luke Air Force Base suggested that it was always possible that the “Phoenix Lights” were flares that had been dropped from a very high altitude. This explanation, however, baffled many people, including Dr. Lynne Kitei.

“How can flares that cannot keep a formation, traverse the entire state and beyond for hours in a rock-solid V?”

Kurt Russell Was A Civil Pilot Witness To The Phoenix Lights #UFO Incident. https://t.co/HYLjpoHQRi

— UFOS-EXPOSED????️ (@UFOS_EXPOSED) May 20, 2017

Kitei and others who witnessed the alleged UFO sighting don’t believe the government’s explanation of flares, especially as so many claim to have seen either “gunmetal” or black aircraft behind the bright “Phoenix Lights.” If they hadn’t seen the aircraft behind them they say that they might be more inclined to believe the explanation of flares, but even that explanation was just a guess given by the military.

There are some aviation experts who have agree with the military and say that flares are a credible explanation for the V-formation of lights that were seen. Ty Groh, an F-16 pilot, has said that when you get flares in the sky they will act similar to hot air balloons and move wherever the wind blows. Groh stated that when you get extremely bright objects like this, and they are very far away, they will just naturally appear much closer than they actually are and that this had been his personal experience as a pilot.

“You’ll be looking at airliners that look like they’re 10 miles away and they’re 400 miles away.”

John Searle tracking UFO sightings on September 6, 1967. [Image by Express/Getty Images]

Even with flares as an explanation for the “Phoenix Lights” UFO sighting, many people still believe that the event they witnessed on the night of March 13, 1997, could only have been extraterrestrial. This includes Fife Symington, 71, who was the governor of Arizona from 1990 to 1998. Symington believes that the government was well aware of this UFO sighting, especially as he personally called the Pentagon and reported the incident.

Arizona’s former governor also says the claim that the “Phoenix Lights” were made by flares is “total bunk,” as the Express reports.

“Issues like this go up the chain of command all the way to the Pentagon. We called the Pentagon. I think they knew there had been sightings, but they weren’t talking about it. I have seen high altitude flares before. There is no way they were flares. It has never been explained.”

After watching the video of the “Phoenix Lights” incident in 1997, do you believe this was really a UFO sighting?

[Featured Image by Ian Gavan/Getty Images]

This past March marks the 20th anniversary of what is considered one of the largest UFO sighting ever reported. On March, 13 1997, a trail of lights lit up the desert sky and caused quite the stir.

According to a witness interview with Phoenix news station CBS5, Sue Watson said “Seriously, when it flew over, it was beautiful. It had these lights in front and then it was totally illuminated underneath, like a yellowish amber. It was a totally rounded boomerang shape.”
Many witnesses reported the same sighting: a formation of lights that hovered in the sky. Despite the many reports, this event did not see much news coverage. It wasn’t until USA Today put the story on their front page on June, 18 1997, that this really got national attention.

Another witness, Dr. Lynne Kitei, an internationally acclaimed physician and health educator was so moved by the lights that she set aside her medical career to pursue “The Phoenix Lights” book and internationally award-winning documentary project.

According to that same USA Today news source, the United States military claims the lights were a result of a training session involving flares dropped over the Barry M. Goldwater Range near Gila Bend, Arizona. No photos of the suspected aircraft have surfaced since 1997, and there have no additional sightings of this stature reported. For many, however, the curiosity has not subsided. The phenomenon that is the Phoenix Lights has a massive following both locally and nationally.

The Phoenix Lights Network has been hosting annual celebrations to commemorate the event since 2005. The special 20-year anniversary celebration took place on Sunday, March 12 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Scottsdale Harkins Shea Cinema. The event showed an award-winning Phoenix Lights documentary, a presentation from Phoenix officials and a question/answer session with filmmaker Steve Lantz and book signing with Kitei. This event has sold out every year since it was first introduced. It’s recommended to get tickets early.