Nearly 13 years since the largest mass UFO sighting known as The Phoenix Lights, researcher Dr. Lynne Kitei shared her astonishing eyewitness testimony of the incident, as well as talked about similar sightings leading up to the March 1997 event. One such encounter occurred in 1995, when Kitei says three amber-colored orbs in a triangle formation hovered above her community in the desert. Kitei recalled an eerie silence falling over the neighborhood, the topmost orb slowly fading from view, and the feeling that an intelligent presence was watching her.
Kitei snapped photos of the orbs she saw that night and sent them (some years later) to be examined by Dr. Bruce Maccabee, a former U.S. Navy optical physicist. Noticing how the skyline lights changed in the pictures, Maccabee determined that at least an hour, if not more, had passed between the first and last shots. Kitei said she remembered the sighting taking only a few minutes and believes the photographs offer proof of 'missing time.'
Two years later, in January 1997, she had another sighting. Kitei described seeing six points of lights, equidistant from each other, moving together in a massive mile-wide configuration. Air traffic controllers at Sky Harbor International Airport also witnessed the event, Kitei continued, noting that they could offer no explanation for the phenomenon other than it was likely not caused by a conventional source.
The formation of lights returned again to the Arizona sky in March 1997 and this time thousands of people witnessed them. Kitei said area military bases initially claimed to have no idea what had caused the lights, but later suggested they were flares from an Air National Guard flight. Kitei expressed doubt about this theory, pointing out that the lights remained in a v-shape formation while traversing the state for several hours. The lights were reportedly seen detaching from the main object and then redocking with it as well, she added. Kitei also commented on the military blimp theory, Native American beliefs about the lights, and the curriculum she's working on based on her UFO experiences.
'Hiroshima' Controversy
In the first hour, author Charles Pellegrino defended himself amid questions about the accuracy his book, The Last Train from Hiroshima. Pellegrino came under fire recently after a source he used for the book turned out to be an imposter. Joseph Fuoco, the source in question, told Pellegrino he was a substitute flight engineer aboard the plane that photographed the Hiroshima bomb explosion. Fuoco's account has since been contradicted by two firsthand eyewitnesses, Pellegrino said, noting that he "didn't carry the usual level of skepticism [regarding Fuoco's claims]."
He also commented on a dispute about his academic credentials. Pellegrino alleges he was awarded a doctorate from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, which was taken away a few years later by an ad hoc tribunal of faculty members. Pat Walsh, the university's vice chancellor, maintains that Pellegrino was never awarded a Ph.D. Pellegrino said Walsh is wrong and hopes to be vindicated some day.