Mystery of Estrella lights solved?
04:00 PM Mountain Standard Time on Monday, November 22, 2004
By Scott Davis / NewsChannel 3 reporter
Strange lights hanging over the skies of the Valley have been making worldwide news. Hundreds of people have seen the lights over the West Valley since they first appeared this summer.
But what's behind the mysterious Estrella lights?
A NewsChannel 3 photojournalist noticed something strange one night in the June sky west of the Valley. Many people called the station to report the same thing, including Fran and Sheila Vega of Goodyear.
"We watched 'em for about 2-1/2 hours. Watching them move back and forth," Sheila Vega said. "I'm a little embarrassed that people will think I'm crazy, but I know what I saw."
And miles away in Mesa, Jeff Woolwine has been videotaping lights in they sky almost every night since then.
"No one told us exactly what they are, so I'm here to try to figure out if we can explain some of these things or not," he said.
The military had an answer. Davis-Monthan Air Force base in Tucson granted our request for a tour to see pilots and their crews getting ready for a training mission.
They're preparing flares to be loaded onto their fighter jets.
Major Dave Trucksa flies an A-10 warship. He's convinced that what many people saw were flares over Gila Bend.
"In my opinion and what I've seen flying here, in Korea, Afghanistan, all over the place, on a dark night like we have here with no city lights, those things light up very well. You can see them for 100 miles," he said.
To be sure, computer analyst Jim Dilettosso took a look at the tapes.
"Looking at it in the studio, my first reaction was, because the way the lights were oscillating, changing in brightness, I thought it was flares," Dilettosso said. "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.'"
