Two events, one night: a formation of A-10s and then flares
On the evening of 13 March 1997 thousands of people across Arizona and into Nevada watched lights in the sky, over a corridor some three hundred miles long from the Nevada line through Phoenix towards Tucson. It was two separate things. Around 8 pm a triangular formation passed overhead, and both the timing and the appearance match five A-10 Thunderbolts flying formation at altitude showing steady formation lights rather than blinking anti-collision lights, part of Operation Snowbird out of Davis-Monthan. Around 10 pm a row of lights appeared to hang stationary over Phoenix; those were LUU-2B/B illumination flares dropped by Maryland Air National Guard A-10s over the Barry Goldwater Range, which hang under parachutes and drift slowly. Both explanations are on the record. It remains one of the most-witnessed sightings ever.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours of here.
