Former Republican Governor of Arizona during the March 1997 Phoenix Lights sighting. Initially staged a press-conference ridicule of the event; in 2007 publicly confirmed that he too had seen the V-formation and described it as 'otherworldly.'
Gov. Fife Symington III was the Governor of Arizona during the famous 1997 Phoenix Lights mass UAP sighting that occurred over his state. Initially, he ridiculed the event during a press conference by parading an aide in an alien costume to defuse growing public panic. Symington's key contribution occurred years later when he publicly confessed that he had personally witnessed the massive, delta-shaped craft that night and that it was fundamentally otherworldly. He subsequently became an advocate for UAP transparency, apologizing for his initial dismissal of the event and engaging with pilot safety organizations. His reversal stands as a prominent example of high-level political figures acknowledging the reality of anomalous phenomena.