Night from p 23 the Phoenix Lights. In 2017, actor Kurt Russell told BBC's The One Show he flew his stepson Oliver Hudson into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that night and spotted the V formation while landing. He may have been the first pilot to officially report the sighting. Kurt Russell (on The One Show): And we were on approach and I saw six lights over the airport … in a V shape. I was just looking at them and I was coming in — we're maybe a half a mile out — and Oliver said, "Pa, what are those lights?" I reported it. [Sky Harbor air-traffic controllers] said, “We're not pinging anything. We don't show anything." I said, "Well, okay. I'm going to declare it’s unidentified, it's flying, and it’s six objects.” We landed, I taxied, dropped him off, took off, and went back to L.A. Never said a word. He never said a word. I never thought of it. Two years later, [wife Goldie Hawn] is watching a television show when I came home. And the show is on UFOs … I stop and I started watching, and it was on [the Phoenix Lights]. And I'm watching this and I'm feeling like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's like, "Why do I know this?" It's not clear to me … and then they said a general aviation pilot reported it on landing. I've never thought of it since then. And I said, “That was me.” Not everyone claimed to have seen a single boomerang-shaped craft or formation of lights while looking at the Phoenix Lights. As New Times reported in June 1997, Mitch Stanley, a 21-year-old amateur astronomer living in Scottsdale, used his 10-inch Dobsonian mirrored telescope to view what he described as a squadron of smaller planes in formation. He viewed it for a minute or so, preferring to look at the stars instead. Mitch Stanley (in 1997): They were just planes, I didn't want to look at them … They were planes. There's no way I could have mistaken that. The V formation cleared the Valley’s airspace by 8:45 p.m., reportedly bound for Tucson, southeast Arizona, and Mexico. Around 75 minutes later, a second series of lights appeared just after 10 p.m.: a line of nine orb-like lights appearing to hover over the Sierra Estrella mountain range in the southwest Valley before eventually vanishing. Reactions and perceptions differed. Stacy Holmstedt, Mesa resident: I was working for azcentral at the time. I'd just graduated college the year before and was so new, they put me on the swing shift. I’d gotten off work and was driving home on the eastbound [Loop] 202 and I had a really good vantage point [on the stretch near Tovrea Castle]. And I remember seeing this line of glowing lights to the west of me, like six of ’em, all in a row, and they weren't moving. And it was really eerie. Carminda Loleng, Phoenix resident: We were riding our bikes around Roosevelt and 13th Street after getting off at 10. And there was this row of six or eight lights in the distance that were flashing on and off. It’s a vivid memory because everyone says I’ve looked like an alien my whole life. I always joke that I'm E.T. and they left me here, so I saw those lights and I started jumping up and down and screaming, "They're here! They're here! Beam me up!" Holmstedt: To this day, I have no idea what I saw. I didn't immediately think aliens, but later figured that if it was aliens, we'll know pretty soon because somebody will report it and it will be on the news. Hurd: Thousands and thousands of people saw what happened that night and started reporting it, whether it was to MUFON or [the National UFO Reporting Center] and also media and the police. Verlee Nanneman, Phoenix Police Department 911 operator: It started out slow, and then all of a sudden, we were getting lots of calls, and they were all regarding strange lights in the sky. The calls came in very steady for about an hour. Everyone seemed calm and was saying it was either the V shape or five lights or seven lights [over the Sierra Estrella mountains]. In the 24 years I worked there, we’d get an occa- sional call or two about strange lights, but nothing like that night. Phoenix’s 911 operators weren’t the only ones getting inundated with calls. On that night’s episode of his nationally syndicated paranormal talk radio program Coast to Coast AM, the late Art Bell fielded dozens of “frantic” callers describing “a very busy night in the skies above Arizona.” One was from NUFORC director Peter Davenport, whose organization took dozens of calls that evening. Eyewitnesses also reportedly reached out to Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, the National Weather Service, and local media outlets like the Arizona Republic, which ran a short story five days later. City of Phoenix officials were also getting an earful. Frances Emma Barwood, then a city councilwoman and vice mayor, stated in an episode of Showtime’s 2021 docuseries UFO that her office received 700 calls asking for an investigation. She championed their cause, but at a cost. Hurd: Frances Emma Barwood was the only local official who took the case seri- ously. She took reports at her council office and met with people at her office. Frances Emma Barwood, former Phoenix city councilwoman and vice mayor (on UFO): I was going to a City Council meeting [on] May 6 of 1997. I was stopped by a reporter and she asked me if I knew about this object that flew over Phoenix on March 13. And she said, "Could you ask at the meeting?” When it came my turn for councilor's requests, I told them about the reporter and could we find out whatever this object was. Everybody turned around and looked at me and it was like, "Did I say something wrong?" Barwood’s crusade drew more attention to the sightings by local >> p 27 25 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES MARCH 10TH– MARCH 16TH, 2022
