Ten years ago, what some call one of the most significant UFO sightings in North America took place right here in Phoenix.

Let's begin with what we know for sure. Let's begin with the story back then.

The Story Then

Control Tower

Military Response

What are flares

Media coverage

Prominent people

The Intruder

Back in 1997, nearly everyone with video, photos or a story to tell about "The Phoenix Lights" turned to Jim Dilettoso and Michael Tanner at Village Labs in Tempe. After all that time, Dilettoso at last released video of "The Intruder", as shown in our special, The Phoenix Lights: X.
But there's more.
At least one more video exists, showing what appear to be mystery lights moving over Phoenix. The difference in this tape: Dilettoso says a pilot from Luke Air Force Base captured the images with a camera in his cockpit, as he pursued the lights over Maricopa County. While the video is not yet released to the public, Dilettoso does describe it exclusively for us.

Prominent people

See a UFO?

Multiple organizations take witness reports on unexplained sightings. Remember, the "U" stands for "unidentified", and not necessarily "uneartlhy"!

1. The National UFO Reporting Center in Davenport, Washington maintains one of the most comprehensive databases of strange sightings. Director Peter Davenport collects and categorizes each report by date and location. Here, we narrowed down the search to show just the Arizona sightings from Jan 1 - Feb 15 of this year. Contact the National UFO Reporting Center online at www.nuforc.com .
Hotline for sightings less than one week old: 206-722-3000.

2. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is one of the oldest UFO investigatory agencies in the world. It is organized into local chapters, most often with one for each state. To reach them on the web, www.mufon.com or www.mufonarizona.org.

State Director George Parks: 520-692-1233

Parks tells us the most important thing to do, even before you make a report, is to write it down!
Take notes:
Where were you?
Where was the object?
What were the wind and weather conditions?
Did you hear anything?
Did you feel anything?
Use landmarks (trees, lights, buildings) to estimate size and speed.
And if you get photos or videotape, we want to see them! So e-mail unexplained@azfamily.com.