Mysterious lights over north Phoenix

07:01 AM MST on Tuesday, April 22, 2008

PHOENIX (AP) -- Red colored lights that formed a square and then a triangle were seen floating over north Phoenix. There was no immediate word where they came from.

The Air Force said it wasn't theirs and officials at Deer Valley airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport could not explain it.

The lights were visible for about 13 minutes around 8 p.m. Monday.

One north Phoenix resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said he saw four or five red lights lined up in a straight line and spaced evenly apart.

As the lights moved slowly east they became dimmer as the witness watched. He said the last light remained in the sky the longest. Then three jets came from the west and traveled in the direction of the red lights.

A Luke Air Force Base official said the base wasn't flying any aircraft in the sky Monday night and that the lights are not part of any Air Force activities.

KSAZ-TV, a local Fox affiliate in Phoenix, reported that officials from Phoenix Deer Valley Airport saw the lights approximately 4 miles south of the airport and that the lights were rising as they watched.

Airport officials said the lights were not from any aircraft at that airport.

Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that air traffic controllers at Sky Harbor also witnessed the lights, but do not know the cause.

On March 13, 1997, thousands of residents reported seeing a mile-wide, v-shaped formation of lights over the Phoenix area. In that case, the lights appeared about 7:30 p.m. and lasted until 10:30 p.m.