Mar. PASS
A strange occurrence happened this month during a routine traffic report. It was reported that viewers saw a flash of light on Arizona Morning, later thousands viewed it online. Instead of leaping to odd conclusions the news outlet actually investigated.
“We spoke to ADOT, a water treatment plant, Phoenix Police, local high schools, businesses in the area and finally — Phoenix Fire Arson Investigator Steve Franklin had an answer.
Phoenix Fire says at 5:10 on Thursday morning, they got one 911 call from a woman driving up 35th Avenue and Cheryl. She says saw a big explosion and saw sparks coming off of a power line then the power went out.”
The investigations eventually turned up an answer, “Arizona Public Services has confirmed a breaker on an electrical line opened, causing a big flash and power outage.”
This is what good investigative reporting does it finds answers. Hopefully this incident won’t add to the local lore about lights in Phoenix.
Mar. Fail
March marks the 15th anniversary of the phenomena known as the “Phoenix Lights.” Reportedly on March 13, 1997 people saw lights in the sky over the city of Phoenix. Some claimed they moved across the sky in a V formation others claimed they hovered in the air and flickered. One local news outlet reports that a special screening of a documentary in Scottsdale in honor of the incident’s anniversary. This news story claims that no explanation was ever truly offered for the Phoenix Lights. This isn’t exactly accurate, not only is there an explanation there’s two. One year after the original phenomena one Phoenix New Times reporter Tony Ortega pieced together an extensive article explaining not only what was seen in the sky but also why there are so many conflicting reports about the lights.( For the long version click here and for a condensed version click here. )
“For starters, there were two separate events on the night of March 13, 1997 over the skies of Arizona. The mysterious ‘vee’ configuration of lights that so many people across the state witnessed was seen over Prescott at about 8:15 p.m. and traveled south to Phoenix at about 8:30 and then passed over Tucson at 8:45. That’s 200 miles in thirty minutes which means the vee was moving at about 400 miles per hour.
…
On the night of March 13, news of the 8:30 pm sighting traveled fast, so a large number of people were outside with video cameras when the second and unrelated event, at about 10 pm, happened in the sky southwest of Phoenix. A string of lights appeared in the sky, and slowly sank until they disappeared behind the nearby Estrella Mountain range.”
As Ortega has explained these two separate events have completely different descriptions and completely different explanations.
