Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington now states that he witnessed the huge "Phoenix Lights" UFO ten years ago, according to a published report by respected investigative journalist Leslie Kean.

In an article published Sunday, March 18, 2007, Kean reports that Symington claims that he saw a large triangular "craft of unknown origin" with lights.

"It was dramatic. And it couldn't have been flares because it was too symmetrical. It had a geometric outline, a constant shape," Symington is quoted as saying.

Kean obtained the statements from Symington in an exclusive interview from Phoenix. The former governor also said, "It was enormous and inexplicable. Who knows where it came from? A lot of people saw it, and I saw it too."

Symington also told Kean that he called the commander at nearby Luke Air Force Base on the far west side of metropolitan Phoenix as well as the top general of the Arizona National Guard. Symington also checked with the head of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the state police agency about the huge mysterious object.

The former governor says they were "perplexed" and offered no explanation.

Arizona was on the brink of hysteria, Symington told Kean. So, six days later, on March 19, he and his staff staged a phony press conference in which an aide dressed up like an alien and was escorted before reporters in handcuffs.

"I never felt that the overall situation was a matter of ridicule," Symington now says. "I wanted them to lighten up and calm down, so I introduced a little levity."

Just over ten years ago, in the early evening hours of March 13, 1997, a huge V-shaped, triangular or boomerang-shaped object was reportedly spotted near Henderson, Nevada.

The object, with large lights on its underside, was reported by some witnesses to be more than one mile across in size.

It cruised gently and silently into Arizona in a generally south-southeast direction, according to witnesses and researchers.