Here is an interesting article I came across at Space.com: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/black_triangle_020805.html. I find it interesting because I was living in the Phoenix, AZ area a few years ago when a "UFO" supposidly buzzed the area, and I believe that this is what that "UFO" is.
The reason I believe that the Phoenix UFO is a military airship is because of details that are usually NOT reported by the sensationalist media about what happened that night. That night, there were several things going on. To the far west of Phoenix, there was a military exercise going on, where a bunch of flares were dropped. Some use that as an explanation for the UFO. However, that night, I was listening to the radio accounts about what was happening in the skies. While the flares were to the west, the reports of the UFO started to the north of Phoenix, then moved south and then to the south east, not west. Many, MANY, people called into radio stations saying they saw something in the night sky, blocking out the stars as it moved, slowly and silently, across the sky. Many people called in saying they used their binoculars to look at it and saw a dark triangular shape.
Many people took video tapes of the object in the sky that night and many of those videos were shown on the local news the following night. Some of the videos did look like the flares that were dropping to the west that night. But some other videos were nice closeups of it, that to me, looked like an after-burner on an F-16 jet. Other videos showed the tail-tail sign of the blinking navigation lights present on all aircraft. If this was the UFO or not, I don't know, as there were a LOT of aircraft in the sky that night.
Another fact that has been glossed over is that an Air Force base near Phoenix, Luke I think it is, sent up two F-16's to investigate! Half way there, the F-16's returned to base. So when asked, Luke AFB says that it wasn't anything of theirs, which makes sense, as they themselves went to take a look at it. But why did they return? Maybe the real owners of the aircraft told them to "don't bother". I don't think normal Air Force Bases, like Luke, are going to be "playing" around with crazy craft like that anyway, so I would never think of them in the first place. There are plenty of other military agencies that do play around with weird aircraft, many of which have been well documented (many years after the fact of course).
There was also an Air Show that weekend going on, so I personally thought it was nothing more than a stunt to get attention for the show. But as the days and weeks passed, I began to think it was more than just a stunt. But then again, it could have been a coordinated stunt to coincide with the exercises going on west of Phoenix and the air show. After listening to all the radio reports, the TV reports, listening to all the radio callers that swamped radio stations for many weeks after, including reports from airline pilots that were reluctant to say anything at first, I began to think it was another one of the "secret military" type of aircraft.
After all, an entire squadron of the Stealth F-117s was flying for many years before the general public even started to get a clue that they might exist. And they were hidden for quite a few years after until they were finally revealed to the public. So if an entire squadron of fighter planes can be hid for many years, why not the airship that buzzed Phoenix?
Other things to keep in mind, is that besides the Phoenix International Airport, which is in Tempe, south east of Phoenix, there are a lot of small airports in the area, the biggest one being in Scottsdale, north east of Phoenix. You've got military exercises to the west, airliners to the south, and lots of private planes to the east, so there were plenty of things to see and take pictures of in the skies that night.
By the way, UFO, is an acronym for an Unidentified Flying Object. It
does NOT stand for an alien ship full of Martians that are bent on mutilating
cows, kidnapping people so they can be "experimented" on, trampling grain
in farmers crops, and who knows what else mayhem they might want to do.
I personally would love to see "aliens" visit this planet, or at least discover
life somewhere else besides Earth. I believe we are not alone in this universe
we live in. However, I also firmly believe that any alien life form from
another planet that has developed the capabilities to cross the vast distances
of space and visit us would have much better things to do than screw around
with cows and such.
March 14, 2003
I came across this page, "The Phoenix Lights" [over at Dr.Sky.com] which also has some interesting info about that night.
I noticed that I had all my east/west directions mixed... fixed them.
February 8, 2007
Phoenix Valley sees lights in the sky, again (12 News, Phoenix). However, unlike 10 years ago, March 13, 1997, all the local reports are of the flares, and not of anything else flying slowly over the sky.
March 18, 2007-- M. Scott Reynolds (c) 2002-2007