If U.S. government is tracking UFO sightings, Arizona is fertile ground

Editor's note: This story was originally published in January 2015, following the online publication of 130,000 declassified records on the Air Force's files on UFO sightings and investigations.

The possibility that humans are not alone in the universe is something the U.S. government is preparing for — if recent headlines are any indication.

Welcome to the real-life "X-Files."

The New York Times, on Dec. 16, 2017, published a story detailing a mysterious Pentagon program tasked with tracking UFOs.

Defense officials said the program, called Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, ended in 2012. But the Times reported that the program is still in operation in 2017, even if the Pentagon stopped funding it.

PREVIOUSLY: 'Alien Ranch' west of Phoenix can be yours for $5M

In response to the Times' story, Luis Elizondo, a former Pentagon official told CNN: "My personal belief is that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone."

Is it any coincidence that NASA announced, in August, that it was hiring a "Planetary Protection Officer"?

Meanwhile, Phoenix has a storied history of UFO sightings.

Project Blue Book

Decades before the "Phoenix Lights," Arizona residents reported seeing V-shaped formations of UFOs hovering over Yuma and Phoenix.

They reported reflective flying disks, glowing fireballs and swarms of starlike spheres streaming though the Arizona night skies.

These sightings, and many more, come from a trove of nearly 130,000 pages of declassified records from Project Blue Book, the Air Force's files on UFO sightings and investigations. The records were released online in January 2015 thanks to UFO enthusiast John Greenewald.

MORE: What's the story behind Phoenix's most famous UFO sighting?

For Project Blue Book, the Air Force compiled 12,618 UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969 — some of which are from Arizona — but decided to discontinue investigations after finding no proof of national security threats or extraterrestrial vehicles.

While the Air Force investigations may have stopped, the sightings never have.

Arizona ranks No. 7 on a list of the top 10 states with the most UFO sightings, according to the National UFO reporting center.

The more than 3,000 sightings in Arizona date back to 1950, the latest of which occurred Jan. 13, when an observer spotted orange lights south of Phoenix near the Estrella Mountains, according to the UFO reporting center's website.

The Arizona Republic sifted through more than 100 reports from the Project Blue Book files, searching for the interesting, the bizarre and the unbelievable in stories of Arizona's UFO sightings. Many of the names and specific locations within the reports were redacted by the Air Force.

Investigation of flying discs

4 p.m. July 7, 1947

The leaves rustled in the wake of a thunderstorm as Mr. Rhodes stepped out his backdoor and walked toward his workshop. From the east, he heard the approach of an incoming jet — possibly a P-80, according to the report.

The 30-year-old Phoenix man looked, but saw nothing. After several seconds however, a gray disc appeared over the horizon to the northeast.

It was elliptical in shape, 20 to 30 feet in diameter, and appeared about 5,000 feet in the air. The disc seemed to have a cockpit and a tail.

The "object" spiraled downward to about 2,000 feet, then flew upward into the clouds, traveling at speeds between 400 and 600 miles per hour.

Mr. Rhodes ran to his workshop, grabbed his camera and snapped two pictures as the disc dipped under the clouds again, spiraling in a left to right circle, about a quarter- to a half-mile in length.

The disc then disappeared over the western horizon. The entire event lasted about 60 seconds.

While in view, the disc produced no audible sound.

Unidentified sausage-like object

5:45 p.m. April 28, 1949

A Tucson florist stood with two friends at the corner of Campbell Avenue and Hedrick Drive, when an object appeared over the rim of the Catalina Mountains.

The setting sun reflected off the object's brilliant silver coloration.

"It appeared sausage like in shape," the florist noted in his firsthand account. It had no wings, windows, fins or visible openings, facts corroborated by all three men.

The sausage seemed to revolve in a slow roll, similar to an airplane (or maybe a hot dog cooking at Circle K) as it sped across the sky at speeds estimated about 500 miles per hour, and at a height of about 5 to 10 miles above the Earth.

The florist estimated the object would be the size of a city block had it been right in front of him.

The sighting lasted for about 12 minutes.

"The only way I can describe it is that it was sausage-like in shape. I am sure that this was not a conventional aircraft and to the best of my knowledge and belief, I can give no reasonable explanation as to exactly what this object was that I saw," he said.

Air Force sergeant sees unknown flying objects

2:30 p.m. May 9, 1949

A U.S. Air Force sergeant spotted two flying objects while reclining on the front lawn of his home in northeast Tucson.

The objects were flat, silver, reflective and "perfectly round." They appeared in the southwest of the sky, about the size of washtubs, approximately 10,000 feet in the air. The pair headed northwest, banked to the left, then abruptly to the right, fading from view over the Catalina Mountains.

They had no vapor trail, no exhaust and made "absolutely no sound." The objects appeared to be traveling between 750 and 1,000 miles per hours.

The sergeant wrote that although he had been associated with aircraft his entire life, and spent the last eight years working directly with aircraft, he had never seen anything that moved as fast as the objects he spotted in the Tucson sky.

Pilots chase after UFO from ground and sky

7:45 a.m. April 3, 1952

A civilian pilot instructor landed at Marana Air Base.

While waiting for a radio transmission from one of his students, the instructor noticed an object described as a "bright star" in the morning sky. At first, he thought nothing of it.

After about six or seven minutes, a colleague mentioned the object was still hovering in the same place.

Another man, Mr. Logan, took off from the base to get a better look at the object. He climbed to 13,500 feet, but the object appeared at least 30,000 to 40,000 feet in the air.

With no hope of matching that altitude without oxygen, Logan landed again at the airport.

At the same time on the ground, the pilot instructor continued to keep his eye on the object. "It never moved the slightest fraction in relation to the canopy of my aircraft," he said in the report.

After about 45 minutes of observation, the object suddenly vanished.

"The object was bright and shone like polished aluminum. I've been flying for 25 years and never saw anything like it. It was weird," Logan said in a news article about the incident.

Military research indicates there were no balloons in the vicinity of the air base at that time.

Orange light over Cottonwood

7:15 p.m. Jan. 27, 1953

A Cottonwood man stood outside his home watching an airplane fly overhead.

He followed the plane's blinking lights as they disappeared in the east.

That's when he noticed the illuminated object.

It appeared as a yellow-orange light, larger and brighter than any of the stars in the night sky.

The man ran inside, grabbed a pair of binoculars and returned to see the light heading south.

Through the binoculars, he could see the object was made of two lights, one brighter light near the head of the object, and a second fainter light near what he assumed was the tail.

"It moved too fast for a blimp and emitted too much light for a jet," he said in his letter. The lights never blinked, and he never heard a noise.

The man followed the object for about five minutes before it faded into the night.

Air Force conclusion: probably an aircraft. (Previous to this report, the Air Force did not include conclusions about the possible origins of the sightings.)

Air Force pilot over Nogales spot unidentified aircraft

Dec. 23, 1954

Kenneth Hite was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. Hite was flying a local combat air patrol mission when he encountered an unidentified object near Nogales.

Hite spotted the object from his eleven o' clock while looking out the window of his F-86d Sabre. He was flying at an altitude of 15,000 feet, and noted the object was about 5,000 to 10,000 feet above him.

The object flashed with a red and green hazy glow.

Hite made contact and radio lock allowing him to automatically follow the selected target, which appeared about 10 miles ahead of him, he said.

Not more than five seconds later, the radio lock broke and Hite was never able to get it back. He continued pursuit at an altitude of 28,000 feet and a speed of 350 knots.

The distant object appeared to parallel Hite's flight path, maintaining an altitude 5,000 to 10,000 feet above him. The object flew over Nogales and then headed toward Douglas. After reaching Douglas, it turned south and Hite, again, gave chase.

Not long after, Hike began to run low on fuel and had to return to base.

Air Force conclusion: "The possibility, however remote, of ferret or snooper flights of potentially unfriendly aircraft from areas south of the border should not be discounted completely," wrote Capt. Charles L. Dewees about the incident.

"V" shaped lights over Yuma

Oct. 17, 1955

Reports from a missing case file indicate that approximately 12 pale, yellow lights appeared over Yuma.

The observer, described as a military source, said the formation of the pale lights was a wide "V" at a high altitude. The lights grew dimmer, smaller and faded away over the course of about three to four seconds.

Air Force conclusion: The duration and height of the sightings led military officials to believe the observer saw a meteor shower.

Astronomers spot light racing across sky outside of Benson

6:27 p.m. Oct. 19, 1958

A group of astronomers set up about nine miles outside of Benson to watch the Russian space satellite, Sputnik 1, and the third-stage rocket that helped it get into orbit.

The observers never did see the rocket, but instead saw a bright object over the southeastern horizon. It traveled rapidly across the sky then vanished out of view over the north-northwestern horizon after about five minutes.

The object had a yellowish hue, was brighter than any other star in the sky, but dimmer than Venus.

It was traveling in the opposite direction of the satellite's projected path, and was much too bright to be airplane lights, the observer wrote in the account.

Air Force conclusion: possibly artificial meteors. Around the same time, the Air Force launched artificial meteors into the upper atmosphere that glowed bright enough to be photographed.

Cigar-shaped object seen over Mesa

7:45 p.m. April 8, 1958

Two men in their 20s saw an unidentified flying object speeding from north to south while driving west on Main Street in Mesa.

The men said the object had windows that emitted an orange light.

At first, the men said it had the appearance of a falling star with an approximate size of a grapefruit held at arm's length.

What was peculiar, according to the report, was the object's movement and speed. The light rapidly descended to about 1,500 feet over the city of Mesa then slowly pulled into a steep climb until it performed a near vertical ascent, all the while accelerating.

The object disappeared from view after a total of 10 seconds.

Both men were completely convinced they saw a "flying saucer," according to the report.

Air Force conclusion: It may have been a military aircraft on a classified mission, according to a report.

White streak over Tucson

6:20 p.m. Feb. 24, 1960

The sun had just set behind the mountains when a 31-year-old Tucson man and his wife encountered a white, globular light while driving outside of downtown.

The man's wife pointed at a white streak in the sky, framed by the car's windshield.

At first the man thought it might be a contrail, but it did not lengthen or spread.

He pulled to the side of the road to more closely examine the object.

It appeared as a band of white light, the same color as the contrail.

The object appeared over the mountains to the west, heading east over the city. As it flew, the object made drastic maneuvers, changing direction and slanting.

Behind the object, the man noted a dim globe shape.

After about 5 minutes, the diagonal streaks broke off the initial band of light, circling the object, then absorbed back into the original band.

It appeared to glide over the sky, gently rising and then fading away to the south.

Air Force conclusion: The Air Technical Intelligence Center wrote a letter stating that the object was determined to be the re-entry of U.S. satellite Discover VIII.

15 reports of UFOs over Phoenix

4:30 a.m. Aug. 10, 1964

An object with a trail of whitish-yellow flames and sparks skittered across the early-morning sky over Phoenix, according to reports from civilian and military observers.

Two of the reports indicated the object looked like a fireball and could have been a meteor.

Most agree, the source was very bright and came from a single object. No sound was reported.

Most on the ground observed the object heading from west to east, but two flight crews reported the object moving southwest to northwest.

On average, the object was visible for about 10 seconds.

Air Force conclusion: Most likely a meteor, according to the report.

6 lights with high-pitched hum over Tempe

Sept. 7, 1965

A Tempe liquor-store clerk watched as six whitish-yellow objects flew low over the city as if they were going to land, before disappearing to the southeast over the mountains.

Each of the objects were oval-shaped, and had windows that emanated a pinkish light, according to the clerk. Two of the lights were side by side, and four together.

They emitted a high-pitched hum that hurt the ears of the observer, and gave her a headache.

The officer producing the report noted that the clerk was convinced UFOs exist and had seen numerous UFOs during the four years prior. The clerk also said she had hypersensitive hearing that allows her to hear UFOs before she sees them.

Air Force conclusion: The clerk lived under a very active airway, and could have seen eastbound aircraft that went out of sight over the mountains, according to the officer producing the report.

Military official spots bright objects with erratic movements

Oct. 25, 1965

Nine miles southeast of Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, a military official watched the night sky from home.

The observer noticed a bright object to the southwest.

At first, the observer thought it resembled a star or planet. It oscillated from white to orange and black to white.

But then it began to move. It changed directions from south to north, then moved to the southeast and east. It changed elevation, disappeared, then reappeared an hour after its first appearance.

The observer described the movements as "erratic" and emphasized it moved at high speed.

Air Force conclusion: The intelligence officer submitting the report concluded the observer saw the planet Venus in the southwest and Jupiter in the south-southeast.

V-shaped UFO formations over Phoenix

8:05 p.m. Nov. 26, 1965

A husband, wife and son standing outside watched an explosion in the sky similar to Fourth of July fireworks, except that the rocket burst into a perfect circle of blue starlike objects.

The cluster of 30 to 50 objects then moved south over Phoenix.

Ten to 15 seconds after the first sighting, the cluster began "swarming like bees, resolving into two undulating 'V' formations," then melding back into a single V before disappearing while heading due south, according to a summary of the event from the husband, who included his qualifications as an astronomer and a teacher of aircraft identification during World War II.

Air Force conclusion: The officer submitting the report wrote "Other (BIRDS)" in the conclusion box on the record.

An elaborate hoax in Tucson

5:40 p.m. Oct. 9, 1967

A 13-year-old boy said he watched a UFO take off from the desert. He described the object as looking like a large, silver water heater with 2 legs, each fitted with a curved pad.

The boy said the UFO made a humming sound as it took off, and left an indescribable taste in his mouth.

The report includes pictures of impressions in the sand the boy alleges were created by the UFO.

The Aerial Phenomena Branch received the report, took pictures and soil samples, then sent them to the Ohio River Division Laboratory for testing.

In turn, the lab found that the UFO could not possibly have been the size or dimensions described by the boy.

Air Force conclusion: The last page of a comprehensive 60-page report written by Air Force Col. Raymond Sleeper stated his thanks for the detailed investigation and said simply, the alleged Tucson incident was a hoax.