Mysterious
Phoenix Lights a UFO Hoax By
Benjamin Radford, LiveScience's Bad Science Columnist
On
Monday evening, April 21, mysterious lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona. At
just after eight, hundreds of residents called police and local news media to
report four bright red lights hovering silently over the city. They changed shape
after a while, moving from a triangular to rectangular configuration, then disappeared
one by one. The
Air Force had no explanation for the lights, and air traffic controllers said
that whatever was causing the lights didn't show up on radar. Theories abounded,
with UFOs and aliens of course being very popular. One UFO enthusiast named Jeff
Woolwine said that he is certain that the lights are from alien spaceships. The
lights remained a mystery and became a national media story. The
case took a twist two days later when a local television station aired a startling
confession by an anonymous hoaxer: He had created the UFO lights using road flares
tied to helium balloons, launching them in one-minute increments. Some people
were amused by the hoax, others were angered, and many conspiracy-minded UFO buffs
were skeptical of such a mundane explanation. It's
true that just because a person has confessed to a hoax doesn't mean the case
is solved. After all, people often falsely confess to things they didn't do—including
murder (for example, John Mark Carr falsely confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey
in 2006). A confession (especially an anonymous one) by itself is not credible
unless corroborated by physical evidence. In
this case, however, the evidence is overwhelming that the Phoenix Lights were
indeed a hoax. Let's consider the facts. 1)
The formation of the lights is consistent with independently moving objects, not
fixed lights on an aircraft. They rose into the air together, stayed in more or
less the same formation while in the same air currents, then drifted apart as
they gained altitude. Also, the mysterious lights drifted toward the east—the
same direction as the wind. 2)
Air traffic controllers reported that nothing showed up on their radar. If the
lights were the only visible part of a metallic spaceship or airplane, they would
have been clearly on radar. However, "UFOs" consisting of small balloons,
road flares, and some fishing line would be invisible to radar. 3)
The way the lights disappeared also supports the hoax theory. They did not zoom
away at high speed, as one might expect from an aircraft. Nor did they all suddenly
and mysteriously disappear. Instead, eyewitnesses reported that the lights were
visible for between 15 and 30 minutes, until they went out one by one. This is
exactly the pattern we would expect to see from flares that were lit (and launched)
in sequence: they would go up, remain lit for about 20 minutes, then first flare
would extinguish. A minute or two later the second would burn out, and so on.
4) One of the
hoaxer's neighbors, a Mr. Mailo, actually saw the hoaxer launch the helium balloons
and flares. Mailo said the flares were lit about 8 p.m., just before the UFO lights
were first sighted. Thus
the mysterious Phoenix Lights of 2008 are explained. Any object seen in the sky,
especially at night, can be very difficult to identify, and it's no wonder that
the lights puzzled many people. All that is needed to create a UFO sighting is
one person who may not recognize a light or object in the sky. But just because
people — even thousands of people — don't know what they are seeing
doesn't mean that someone else (maybe a hoaxer), doesn't know exactly what it
is. This is not
the first time that strange lights have appeared in the dark skies over Phoenix.
In 1997, similar lights were reported by hundreds; the military had been dropping
flares over a nearby testing range, though many UFO believers rejected that explanation
as part of a military cover-up. The
Phoenix Lights of 2008 shows just how easy it is to fool the public and create
a media stir. All it takes is a few balloons and flares, some spare time, and
a mischievous streak. | 
