Dr. Lynne Kitei (Physician, Health Educator) has been researching the mysterious case of the Phoenix Lights and believes to have uncovered further evidence that reveals a powerful blow to the Flare Theory that many have come to accept as an explanation to the UFO lights. Dr. Kitei has official government documents that say that all Air Force planes were grounded on that night on March 13, 1997.

The mystery behind the Phoenix Lights has captivated the imagination of every person who believes in intelligent life outside our planet. Many also confuse the Phoenix sighting as one long incident that took place across the entire state and that’s not true.

The first reports of a strange hovering craft were around 20:15 MST. The witnesses reported seeing a large V-shaped craft floating silently above the Prescott, Arizona, area. Within thirty minutes, the craft was then reported 215 miles south in the city of Tucson.

The footage of the nine or so glowing orbs of light above Phoenix is considered the second incident by Ufologists. This was several hours after the initial “V” sightings and bares no resemblance to what was seen above Prescott.

Dr. Kitei’s researched yielded information about Luke Air Force Base having all their planes grounded at the time of the second incident. However she doesn’t mention anything about Arizona’s other Air Force Base, Davis-Monthan AFB.

Lt. Col. Edward Jones confirmed in March of 2007 that he had flown his squadron above Phoenix at the time and were in fact dropping flares as part of a night exercise.

In March 2007 Lt. Col. Ed Jones, confirmed that he had flown one of the aircraft in the formation that dropped flares on the night in question. The squadron he belonged to was the Maryland Air National Guard who used A-10 ground assault aircraft and were in Arizona on a training exercise at the time.

The first reports that members of the Maryland Air National Guard were responsible for the incident were reported by Arizona Republic reporter Richard Ruelas on July 25, 1997.

In an excellent, well-researched post on one website, Brian Dunning examined the flares used in the incident and how they correlate with what was seen that night. Dunning states:

The A-10 drops two different kinds of flare: a countermeasure flare, used to confuse heat-seeking missiles; and an illumination flare, used to light up the ground at night either for the benefit of troops on the ground or to light up a target so it can be visually targeted for weapons release. The illumination flare is the one we’re talking about. It’s called the LUU-2 air-deployed high intensity illumination flare. It’s made by defense contractor ATK Thiokol. The variant in use at the time of the Phoenix Lights incident was the LUU-2B/B. It weights 30 pounds and its canister is three feet long and 5 inches in diameter. Once it ejects its parachute and ignites, it puts out 1.8 million candela for 4 minutes, or 1.6 million candela for 5 minutes. It falls in its parachute at 8.3 feet per second. At 1000 feet above the ground, it lights up an area half a kilometer wide at 5 lux. The LUU-2’s pyrotechnic candle burns magnesium, which produces an intense white light. Because it burns so hot, it also ends up burning the aluminum canister, which adds an orange hue to the light for most of the burn. About halfway through the burn, enough of the canister has been burned away that it actually lightens the load and it falls more and more slowly. Once it’s almost completely out, an explosive bolt disconnects the parachute and the flare drops, burning out completely sometime hopefully before landing on someone’s wood shingle roof. –source: freedomsphoenix.com