UFOs over Phoenix: National Geographic documentary premieres Monday evening

V-wing UFO reported over Phoenix by Tim Lee.
Image © 2010 Base Productions

A new documentary investigation into the still-unexplained March 1997 mass UFO sightings in Arizona premieres Monday, Feb 22 at 7 and 10 p.m. local Phoenix time.  The refreshing conclusion of American Paranormal: UFOs over Phoenix is that current engineering science cannot account for the performance characteristics in descriptions of large, silent structured craft that appeared over the state that night.

The inference, left to the audience, is that whatever appeared to hundreds of witnesses on that one evening alone, was likely not the product of human engineering.  This is consistent with an emerging pattern of soft disclosure leading to eventual scientific and academic embrace of the existence of non-human intelligence operating advanced technology in Earth's biosphere.

Paradigm Research Group leader Steven Bassett, a dedicated advocate of disclosure as political imperative acknowledged the value of the program after viewing a preview at a meeting of Phoenix MUFON over the weekend.  "It would appear the National Geographic Channel is climbing on board the Disclosure train." he remarked in a note to members of the Exopolitics Institute mailing list.

Mike Fortson describes V-shaped object.
Image © 2010 Base Productions

The program looks at the iconic video footage taken by Mike Kryzston just shortly after 10:00 p.m. from his north Phoenix home, which many have come to believe are the the Phoenix Lights. 

The investigation includes eyewitness testimony of former computer engineer Tim Ley and former White House security detail member Mike Fortson who were among hundreds of witnesses to large craft traversing the night sky--although 'flying' cannot be the proper verb to describe their mode of operation much earlier that night.

The program was granted unprecedented access to the new Sky Harbor Tower air traffic control cab for interviews with controller Mike Pearson regarding lights he observed south of south mountain in the 8:30 time frame.

Spectrum Film and Video provided studio facilities for filming of the analysis of Michael Kryzston's iconic video by Jim Dilittoso, one of the original principle investigators into the case.

While the recreations of witness reports of the more significant 8-9 p.m. object sightings as as detailed and accurate as any seen to date, it's not the eye-candy that distinguishes American Paranormal:UFO's over Phoenix from prior news reports and usual UFO documentary, it's the science. Despite the pitfalls inherent in relying on eyewitness testimony, the investigation makes an honest effort to add to our understanding of the events.

Measurements taken by the Darling Environmental and Survey team from Tucson of the geology at the exit point of Tim Ley's observation point allow the usually difficult-to-justify claims of UFO size to be verified. By modeling the observed object to match Ley's description and fitting it into an accurate model of the terrain, a startling fact emerges.  The object Tim Ley says he saw had to be at least 1500 feet along the leading edge and 1500 feet across the wingtip if it were to appear to him as it did.

This, along with information from other sightings was presented to a science team, including ASU physicist Pavlos Mikellides and engineering professor William Waldock, who made an effort to back-engineer the technology capable of providing the propulsion and lift required to support a structure of the same density as the Space Shuttle the size of the reported by Ley.

That effort ran into a dead end.  Rocket and rotorcraft propulsion was ruled out, electromagnetic propulsion was considered capable, but no known source of energy could power an electromagnetic propulsion system.

The issue of crew survivability of the sudden acceleration so typical of UFO reports was addressed.  No known human technology can enact the abrupt acceleration and decelerations observed and keep the presumed occupants (if any) alive.

In the British version, aired earlier in the month in England, ASU Physicist Mikellides makes the point that science has to use imagination to begin to address these kinds of issues.

And that may be the greatest leap of all by the documentary -- the use of imagination in place of ridicule and strained rationale to explain UFO sightings reports.  Advanced principles of Zero Point Energy and field effect propulsion such as those discussed by Dr. Tom Valone recently in Tempe provide a theoretical framework for a propulsion technology that could take us to the stars.  Such a propulsion system would have as a by-product inertial shielding, which would allow the occupants (if any) to remain comfortably alive at one G, even while the structure is observed to be sustaining thousands of G from the viewpoint of an external witness.

The imagination Dr. Mikellides refers to becomes rather a common sense proposition if you wield Occam's Razor with an open mind.  Imagine an advanced civilization observing Earth, trying, perhaps, to raise consciousness by a carefully moderated appearance, not too threatening, not to provable, but providing sufficient evidence to allow rational conclusion that the source of the reports was not human.  If you can do that, you can readily imagine that is the simplist explaintion for what happened in Phoenix in March of 1997 — and sporatically since.

The most refreshing aspect of the documentary is a willingness to take the witnesses at their word and work from there, not going through the usual strained process of inventing complex "it might have been" possibilities just to keep the 'simplest' explanation inside the limits of official consensus reality.

By taking the reports at face value, applying fundamental engineering to them and mapping the results against known human capabilities, the ASU/Embry-Riddle team concluded that -- assuming for the moment that the observed objects were not some form of projection -- no known propulsion system can generate the performance observed. This is essentially the same conclusion LIFE magazine came to in April of 1952 when it published a landmark article which made the case that what were then known as flying saucers were most likely of interplanetary origin.  There has not been a mainstream media article since that date that has been as straightforward about the issue of UFO propulsion and the implications of observed performance.

Until now.

With a little bit of Mikellides' imagaination, perhaps the source of the hundreds of reports in Phoenix nearly 13 years ago is exactly what the most prominent witness to the events said it was.  Former Gov. Fife Symington stated to CNN on Thursday, March 22, that the object he saw was 'otherworldly'.

 In 1997, during my second term as governor of Arizona, I saw something that defied logic and challenged my reality.

I witnessed a massive delta-shaped, craft silently navigate over Squaw Peak, a mountain range in Phoenix, Arizona. It was truly breathtaking. I was absolutely stunned.

As a pilot and a former Air Force Officer, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble any man-made object I'd ever seen.

We want the government to stop putting out stories that perpetuate the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth conventional terms. Investigations need to be re-opened, documents need to be unsealed and the idea of an open dialogue can no longer be shunned.

— Fife Symington, CNN, Nov 9 2007

Set the TIVO for

9 PM Eastern

8 PM Central

7 PM Mountain (in Phoenix) or

6 PM Pacific

to capture the premiere airing of American Paranormal: UFOs over Phoenix.  An encore occurs three hours later and again on March 1.

Consult your local cable provider for the National Geographic Channel number.

For COX cable it is 107.

Eyewitness MIke Fortson will be on the Kevin Smith Radio show on Tuesday, the 23nd from 8 pm to 10 pm.