Fife Symington III.
official-recordsource_actorLandmark High-Strangeness Cases
[DOCUMENTED] Arizona governor during the 1997 Phoenix Lights. In 1997 publicly mocked the event (aide in an alien costume); in 2007 reversed, stating he personally saw a 'massive delta-shaped craft' over Squaw/Piestewa Peak. A pilot, he said it 'couldn't have been flares...too symmetrical.'.
His 2007 CNN first-person commentary and media appearances (NBC, ABC, Larry King; National Press Club panel) made him the highest-profile official to affirm a Phoenix Lights sighting. He said he stayed silent in 1997 partly to avoid public panic and because he was then under federal indictment (21 counts; fraud/extortion). His pilot framing is rhetorically central but does not resolve the event-1 vs flare/A-10 debate.