A Panicked Population is Hard To Control

Former Gov. Fife Symington trotted out an aide dressed as an alien 10 years ago to spoof the frenzy surrounding mysterious lights in the Phoenix sky.

Now, he says he saw the lights, too, and believes they were extraterrestrial. He said he did not acknowledge his encounter at first because he did not want to cause a panic.

He discussed the sighting with a documentary filmmaker and in interviews this week. He told CNN that the craft he saw March 13, 1997, "just felt otherworldly." The Phoenix lights, which appeared in a V shape as they moved across the sky, were widely explained as flares dumped by a military training flight.