Study says Maricopa County home to second-most UFO sightings
Aug 9, 2017, 5:40 PM | Updated: Aug 10, 2017, 11:14 am
These strange lights were spotted on an October night in 2016 in the Phoenix sky. Some people believe them to be a UFO. (Twitter Photo/@tater_todd55)
(Twitter Photo/@tater_todd55)
Phoenix has been a famous spot for UFO sightings, especially since the Phoenix Lights event on March 13, 1997.
That trend has continued, as people in Maricopa County reported the second-most sightings of all U.S. counties between 2001 and 2015.
(Costa and Costa Photo)
A recent UFO statistics study done by researchers Cheryl Costa and Linda Miller Costa showed Maricopa County was home to 2,523 reported sightings — the most of any county in Arizona — and more sightings than 36 states.
Phoenix topped the list for the municipalities with the most UFOs spotted in the sky, followed by Mesa, Scottsdale and Chandler.
Maricopa County was second to Los Angeles County, which had 3,212 sightings. That number was more than 40 states.
Arizona came in seventh in a state ranking with 4,276 reported sightings.
The Costas used information compiled from the databases of the National UFO Reporting Center and the Mutual UFO Network for the study.
About the author: Cheryl Costa is a weekly columnist who writes “New York Skies” for the Syracuse New Times.
