Arizona’s 12 News interviewed Peter Perez, a resident of Phoenix, who said the lights appeared over his neighborhood at about 8:51 p.m., just before Easter Sunday dinner.
According to Perez, it was his step-father who first noticed the orbs and called everyone to see them.
He told 12 News, “That’s when we saw the fleet of them. We were in awe.”
Perez counted 18 to 20 orange or amber-colored orbs in the air. But the area of the sky from which they emerged was obstructed from his view, presumably by other buildings.
He described the orbs as non-blinking and amber-colored. They hovered stationary in the sky for several minutes before suddenly moving west and disappearing from sight.
Perez was able to snap several photos of the lights and a few seconds of video. After the lights disappeared, he remained outside for about five minutes and was surprised when the lights appeared again, now only ten lights, but they behaved the same way as before.
He told 12 News, “They were something I’ve never seen. I don’t want to stretch out and say they were another life form, but I know it was something that I’ve never seen before.”
The sighting is reminiscent of the famous “Phoenix Lights” sighted on March 13, 1997 (see video below), which some tried to explain away as military flares, although the military have never admitted shooting flares that night.
Describing the lights to 12 News, Perez said they were similar to the Phoenix Lights but unlike the Phoenix Lights, they did not blink.
“The main thing that I would say is similar is the color. They were both amber. But these didn’t blink at all.”
He said that like many other Phoenix residents, following the Phoenix Lights incident, he developed an interest in UFOs, but he does not consider himself a “UFO hunter.”
He said, “It’s always been something that’s intrigued me, but I’m not a UFO hunter or anything.”
Perez was not the only Phoenix resident who saw the UFOs. Another witness, who preferred anonymity, saw the lights over 39th Ave. and Union Hills in Glendale, Arizona.
Perez confirmed that the photos taken by the resident showed the same orbs he saw.
Open Minds reports yet another witness, a UFO hunter, whose YouTube channel includes several videos on the subject of UFOs.
YouTube user TimTheBall posted a video of the sighting online. He said he captured the video at about 9:05 p.m. on Easter Sunday. The orbs shown in his YouTube video are apparently the same as Perez’s.
According to TimTheBall:
“This video was shot from the top of my car in my driveway in Glendale, AZ. The first set of orange orbs were initially floating, but then accelerated and started flying east. They spread apart as they started moving, making it impossible to catch all of them in the same frame. They crossed nearly the whole valley as they vanished one by one. When I looked back west, I was astonished to see a new cluster of lights, also on the move across the valley toward the east, and also burning out one by one. I have no idea what they are, but I do not believe these are flares, as they crossed the entire valley sky. When you see each cluster appear, my camera was pointed toward the far west valley. They were vanishing from sight when my camera had panned all the way to the east. They went from a dead float to a quick acceleration. If you saw this, please comment.”
Many other residents of Phoenix and Glendale who saw the orange orbs commented on Facebook. Many expressed the view that they were Chinese lanterns. Many viewers of TimTheBall’s YouTube video were also convinced that they were Chinese lanterns.
The fact that the orbs were amber-colored, like many confirmed sightings of Chinese lanterns, appears to support the view that they were Chinese lanterns.
But TimTheBall disagreed, saying that Chinese lanterns do not accelerate from rest to more than 50 miles in 2 minutes (Digital Journal is unable to confirm TimTheBall’s estimation of the speed of the orbs).
He said, “I didn’t claim they are ET, but it is a UFO.”
When some viewers pointed out that Chinese lanterns can and do accelerate rapidly from rest when caught in a sudden gust of wind, a viewer responded:
“Chinese lanterns do not fly at speeds outpacing helicopters capable of speeds of 120 mph., plus Easter Sunday the wind was not present at all, not even enough [wind] to move a 50′ flag… NOT Chinese lanterns people.”
The last comment complicates the picture and raises questions. The objects shown in the video resemble Chinese lanterns but if the speed of the orbs, as estimated by YouTubers, is accurate, then it isn’t likely they were Chinese lanterns.
Look at the videos and tell us what you think?
