Few weeks ago I blogged about the return of the Phoenix Lights, and then I updated the story to inform that some dude named Lino saw his neighbor release helium balloons with flares attached to them. At the time I smelled bullshit, because it had all the making of disinformation. Guess what I was right.
Just a day after the lights were spotted, the Arizona Republic newspaper reported that Phoenix resident Lino Mailo claimed his neighbor launched several helium balloons with flares on them. Lilo says the balloons went up in the sky from his neighbor's yard around 8pm on Monday night. A Phoenix Police Helicopter Pilot also says that he saw what he believed were helium balloons with flares hanging from them. Despite these claims, there are some problems with the helium balloons explanation.
After hearing the hoax story, I contacted a friend who lives in Phoenix. He agreed to try and reach Mailo or his neighbor. Since the article came out on Tuesday, attempts to contact Lino Mailo have failed. He does not answer his door and his neighbor wasn't home when my friend stopped by on two occasions. In fact, people living two houses down from Mailo say that they know Lino's next store neighbor and he was not home on Monday night. They claim they were out in their own backyard that evening and would have seen balloons with flares being launched. They also agreed to ask him about the flare story when they next see or speak with him.
By contrast, a number of witnesses have come forward to say that jets took off from Luke Air Force Base on Monday night. Luke still claims they had no aircraft in the sky that evening. Further, I asked Kelly Atwood, a professional photographic software expert, to take a look at the video and photos from 4/21/08 lights event. She has extensive experience examining UFO photos for legitimacy and has been able to identify many hoaxes involving balloons, dry cleaning bags and flares.
Kelly says that the lights were too bright and the wrong color to be flares. She also states that the video does not show the normal affect that flares exhibit as they burn. Instead, the lights resemble objects that would have been much larger with a steady source of illumination. Kelly lives in phoenix, but was working on Monday night and didn't see the lights.
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