Strange Lights Over Yuma, AZ - KYMA News11 - Aug. 15, 2012

News 11 received dozens of phone calls and more than 200 comments on their Facebook page from viewers who saw a strange formation of lights over Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.

Photos and video from viewers showed a V-like formation of lights in the sky.

MCAS Yuma's Capt. Staci Reidinger says the lights were part of a Harrier jet training mission. "We had our Harriers flying over Barry Goldwater range, which is close to where people were saying they saw something unusual," said Capt. Reidinger.

Capt. Reidinger says the jets were deploying aircraft parachute flares, which she says are used in combat like floating flood lights to illuminate the battle field.

The formation is similar to the "Phoenix Lights" of March, 1997, where several A-10 Warthog jets were dropping parachute flairs in the Goldwater Range, which sits west of Phoenix. The flares were dropped in a similar V-shaped pattern.