Phoenix City Councilwoman Frances Barwood sits in her north Phoenix home with a copy of The Arizona Republic which touts "UFO Mania" on it's front page Friday, June 20, 1997. Barwood didn't see the lights, but enough people called her about them that she asked the city staff to investigate. AP Photo/Scott Troyanos

Months later, reports of lights in sky have Arizona buzzing

Web posted June 23, 1997

Associated Press

PHOENIX - One night in March, Sue Krzyston heard her husband call from outside: strange lights again in the sky. They had occasionally seen odd lights before from their hilltop home in north Phoenix, but these looked different.

``They were very bright, very large - amber or orange-colored,'' she said. ``They almost looked flamelike, although it wasn't the shape of a flame.''

And this night there was another difference: Mike Krzyston had his video camera and captured three minutes of what appeared to be lights hovering above the city.

They weren't the only people who saw strange things the night of March 13. People from Tucson in the south to Kingman in northwestern Arizona called authorities and groups that track UFO sightings to report lights, many saying they were in a boomerang formation.

Radar screens showed nothing and officials dismissed the reports.

But the issue won't go away quietly.

``You can't ignore that something happened. Something was out there,'' said Frances Emma Barwood, a Phoenix city councilwoman.

She didn't see the lights, but enough people have called her about them that she is convinced something happened, and she wants someone to investigate.

And then the Arizona sightings hit the big time. USA Today ran a story on the phenomenon last week and other major media outlets followed. The Krzystons' videotape was played on national television.

Gov. Fife Symington even got into the fray, getting headlines during a break in his federal fraud trial on Thursday when he said he'd ordered a state investigation of the sightings. He called a news conference later to say it was all a joke, and dressed his chief of staff as an alien for comic effect.

Even with the snickers, Barwood and others see the recent attention as vindication and proof that the phenomenon is worthy of investigation.

Even if the phenomenon turns out to be manmade, Charles Painter would like an answer. ``Somebody knows what it was,'' he said.

He thinks it was Stealth bombers that he saw that night while driving from Tucson to Phoenix.

``They have to test those periodically to make sure they don't have any radar track,'' he said.

Painter saw lights in a triangle formation. While Sue Krzyston saw several lights, Painter said he saw just three, which appeared much larger than the landing lights he saw on planes heading into Phoenix. He pulled off the highway to listen for jet engines but heard none.

Sue Krzyston is quick to say she isn't claiming to have seen a spacecraft. But she said she and her husband had always attributed previous sightings of odd lights to Luke Air Force Base, which sits west of Phoenix.

``This particular night they were farther to the east than they'd ever been before,'' she said.

Peter Davenport, head of the National UFO Reporting Center, a private organization based in Seattle, said his office received hundreds of calls about that night. He said the reports were remarkably consistent in terms of time, location and description.

``Without a doubt, I think the events over Arizona are the most dramatic UFO sighting that has been reported to the hot line in the three years I've been director of the hot line in Seattle,'' he said.

Barwood wrote to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., urging him to ask the Air Force to investigate. McCain forwarded the letter to the Air Force. There's been no reply.

Whatever the cause, Barwood said people deserve an answer.

``Why are so many people afraid of saying, `Hey, let's get to the bottom of what happened?''' she said.