The sightings in Phoenix, Arizona, and Sonara, Mexico, saw thousands of people report seeing a huge array of lights
HOLLYWOOD icon Kurt Russell claims HE was the pilot who stumbled upon on a notorious UFO sighting that has had experts baffled for decades.
Guardians of the Galaxy star Kurt made the startling revelation that he witnessed the Phoenix Lights sightings in 1997 on BBC's The One Show.
The sightings in Phoenix, Arizona, and Sonara, Mexico, were reported by thousands who saw a huge array of lights organised into a triangle.
And 66-year-old Kurt says he was one of the anonymous pilots - flying with stepson Oliver - who offered testimony on the sightings.
He said: "I was the pilot. [I] saw six lights over the airport in absolute uniform in a V-shape.
"I was just looking at them and I was coming in, we were maybe a half mile out.
"I kind of came out of my reverie and I said, ‘I don’t know what they are.’ [Oliver] said, ‘Are we okay here?’
"I said ‘I’m gonna call,’ and I reported it. They said...‘We don’t show anything.’"
It was only several years later when watching TV with wife Goldie Hawn that he released his account had been investigated by UFO sleuths.
The actor continued: "I began feeling like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
"I go, ‘What, why do I know this?’ And it’s not clear to me. And finally they said a general aviation pilot reported it on landing."
The US Air Force has since claimed that one of the groups of lights was a squadron of A-10 Warthog jets flying in formation.
Witnesses described how they moved in a huge V-shaped formation, producing no sound before disappearing and reappearing suddenly.
Many have claimed the bizarre spectacle is proof of extra-terrestrial life.
UFO expert Scott Brando told the : “The Phoenix lights were explained with two different events.
"The first was the flight of five planes in V-shape formation. This is what the witness saw in that day.
"The second event was the launch of military flares over Estrella mountains."
Massachusetts-born Russell is a FAA-licensed private pilot.
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