UFOs over the Estrella Mountains? (Arizona)

Scott Davis / NewsChannel 3 (Phoenix, Arizona) - 7/17/2004

go to original article | fair use notice

Some people are reporting a mysterious sighting of a string of lights in Valley (Arizona) skies last week. A NewsChannel 3 photographer spotted them, turned on his camera and captured on film the so-called "Estrella lights."

June 25, 2004
By Scott Davis / NewsChannel 3 producer


Some people are reporting a mysterious sighting of a string of lights in Valley skies last week.

A NewsChannel 3 photographer spotted them, turned on his camera and captured on film the so-called "Estrella lights"

"We watched them for about 2-1/2 hours" said Sheila Jones-Vega, who said the lights moved back and forth.

She and her husband, Frank, said they could hardly believe their eyes while on a drive to the Estrella Mountains where they're building a home.

The Goodyear couple considered the possibility that pilots from nearby Luke Air Force Base were dropping flares.

"I would think a flare would kind of burn and then fizzle out. These things turned back on" she said.

Jones-Vega was right about the flare activity, says Jim Dilettoso, a professional film analyst. But his analysis came with a word of caution.

"But I don't jump to conclusions. I don't hold a vial of lab blood up to the window and say, 'Well looks OK to me.' You know, there's testing that has to be done, extract the data, compare it to normals. Well now, I have found that it is not flares that I am familiar with in my database" he said.

A spokeswoman at Luke Air Force Base said U.S. pilots there drop flares almost every night of the week, but said the Estrella lights did not originate from the base.

After their impressive view June 14, Jones-Vega and her husband said they spent the next night watching the skies from their second-story bedroom window. They said they saw the fighter jets and the Estrella lights not only on the 15th, but again this week.

"We saw jets come up from the airport, numerous jets come up, and it seemed as though the jets would approach the lights. The lights would turn off" she said. "It wasn't as though the jet was dropping something and the light turned on. The lights were already there and the jets came up near them and the lights turned off. I'm a little embarrassed that people will think I'm crazy, but I know what I saw"

Watching the lights blink out one by one, the couple is pretty sure they'll be back.

The couple said they will be watching and wondering if the truth is out there. After all, their new home is out there too.

"Like I said, I don't want to be living on a landing pad out there for something" she said.

Many people are comparing the Estrella sighting to the Phoenix lights of 1997. Dilettoso said there are similarities but also significant differences.

Luke Air Force Base said pilots reported nothing unusual over the past two weeks. And there were no other reports of other military or private organizations admitting to flying in that area.

TO VIEW THE VIDEO, VISIT:
http://www.azfamily.com/cgi-bin/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.azfamily.com/20040625_UFO.wmv&vsect=News