Mysterious lights in Phoenix sky 'a nonissue,' FAA says

There is plenty of buzz Tuesday over sightings of mysterious lights Monday night in the sky north of Phoenix.

But official sources are not sure what the lights were, and airlines did not report sightings from their planes.

Neither US Airways Group Inc. nor Southwest Airlines Co., the two major carriers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, has received reports from pilots or other workers of seeing the strange lights in the night sky.

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"We're not hearing anything or seeing reports from anyone here, pilots or otherwise," said US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant.

Sky Harbor officials referred calls about the lights to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"We did receive a number of reports from people who said they saw red lights in the skies on Monday night. Among them were some air traffic controllers who were working in the Sky Harbor tower," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "However, there were no unusual targets or unidentified aircraft on our radar scopes, so the lights were really a nonissue for the FAA. We don't know where the lights came from. We're not investigating because there's really nothing for us to investigate."

While the FAA and media outlets have received calls about the lights, officials with the cities of Phoenix and Glendale report they have not received any such calls.

Strange lights also were spotted over the Phoenix area in 1997. Former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, an ex-U.S. Air Force pilot, said last year he believed those lights to be unidentified flying objects.