By Charles Lear (New book to be released!)
This week, we were intrigued by a recent video of a UFO over Scottsdale, Arizona, that received some news coverage. As we looked into it, we were struck by the contrast between the coverage of UFO reports in the days where print journalism was dominant and the present.
There is an article headlined “OUT OF THE BLUE Chilling moment pulsating blue cigar-shaped UFO is filmed hovering over ‘alien-hotspot’ US city leaving locals baffled” written by Dinniah Bartholomew that was posted on the website of the U.K. Sun on April 3, 2024. It includes video of a worm-like UFO glowing blue in the night sky. According to the article, the blue UFO “appeared to come out of nowhere” and hover over the city of Scottsdale, Arizona. Batholomew says photos were captured of the object, that it “appeared to make twists and turns,” that eyewitnesses gawked, and that “many people were concerned about exactly what it could be.” Quotes from witnesses are included such as a person commenting “Now it’s like separating. Dude that’s crazy.”
As intriguing as this might be, no date is given for the incident, no witnesses are named, and while there is a video included of the UFO, it’s not made clear in the article that the quotes and captured photos are from the video. An article posted the same day on the website of the U.S. Mirror also fails to provide a date, but at least makes it clear that all the information comes from the video and provides the information that “between 2000 and 2023, ‘Need To Know’ reported an average of 56 UFO sightings per 100,000 residents in the same area.”
While the Sun and the Mirror are tabloid news agencies, more legitimate agencies, such as News 18 out of India, and MITech News didn’t do much better. In fact, the writer for MITech News merely repeated the story told in the Sun, staying just shy of outright plagiarism. This sort of journalism makes reporting on interesting UFO cases frustrating, but with a small effort, more details can be found on this case, as well as some background on Scottsdale and its UFO history.
An April 1, 2024, article headlined “Video: Pulsating Blue UFO Filmed Over Scottsdale, Arizona,” posted on the website for The Confessionals Podcast is a lot more thorough. It starts right off with the date of the incident, March 28, 2024. There is also the significant detail that the UFO was captured on two separate videos and there are links to both of them, one of which is the one that is included in the Sun and Mirror articles and appears to be the original posting on Instagram. The other is a very brief clip shared on Twitter/X. Unfortunately, the article describes witnesses as if there were several confirmed, when in actuality, the quotes come from the two people talking during the Instagram video in between several exclamations of “What the f#*k?” and comments from both postings.
The most striking feature of the UFO is its blue glow and rope-like appearance. It turns out that Space X Starlink satellite chains sometimes appear blue (explained here) and this UFO could be one of those.
This wouldn’t be the first time a UFO reported over Scottsdale ended up having a prosaic explanation.
There is an article headlined “UFO sighting at high school football game explained… as night time skydivers with flares strapped to their ankles,” that was posted on November 5, 2011, on the Daily Mail website. According to the article, on October 28, 2011, spectators at the game took video of strange lights in the sky. The lights were explained as being four skydivers doing an unusual nighttime jump as part of a “Halloween Balloon Spooktacular.” The information came from helicopter pilot Rick Crabbs who is quoted as saying:
I was at the location where those skydivers were coming in Friday night. That’s exactly what happened: there were some skydivers. And they did have pyrotechnics on their ankles. There were four of them, and if you look at the video, you can see actually four different lights.
What didn’t turn up in any of the articles about the recent sighting is that Scottsdale is home to a UFO museum/attraction. Called “The UFO Experience,” it opened on December 13, 2022.
There is an article by Geri Koeppel headlined “The UFO Experience at Arizona Boardwalk in Scottsdale Asks, ‘Are We Alone?’” posted December 20, 2022, on the Phoenix New Times website. According to Koepell, the attraction, located on the Arizona Boardwalk in Scottsdale, consists of galleries devoted to various aspects of the UFO phenomenon ranging from its history to its treatment by the entertainment industry. Specifically mentioned is the 1995 Alien Autopsy video, the 1997 Phoenix Lights incident, the movie E.T., and the Alien franchise.
Koeppel also adds that “Arizona Boardwalk worked with a production company to make the content and is in talks to partner on special events with MUFON, the acronym for the Mutual UFO Network.” Arizona State MUFON and Phoenix MUFON Director Stacy Wright is said to have seen the exhibit and found it to be “a little more commercial and Hollywood than she expected.” She did say, however, that the gift shop was “wonderful.”