[graderjs]

Honestly that's just sampling bias. The current high profile crop are only from Navy pilots. But there's lots of data of unexplained things happening over other areas (Phoenix lights, Belgium wave, Mexico City UFOs). The difference now is that instead of random civilians, or other country militaries, saying they saw it and being ignored by the media mostly, the US armed services are pushing the story out there. None of that means that armed services are the only ones that have encountered this or have evidence of it. But the coordinated narrative, "authority source" and push definitely raises the prominence of these stories in relation to others.

[ping_pong]

The Phoenix lights were easily explained by flares that disappeared behind mountains.

[Dysseus]

Most of the UFO sightings occurred around 8:15-9:00 PM, while the flairs were known to be ignited around 10:00 - 10:30 PM. Really bizarre fact about the Phoenix lights, the Governor of Arizona at that time has admitted he saw the UFO (UAP - whatever) [0].

[0] https://www.amazon.com/UFOs-Generals-Pilots-Government-Offic...

[graderjs]

"Easily explained" is not really cutting it for a lot of people. And that's cool. That's part of the difficulty with this, everyone has different thresholds where they're convinced about something which basically none of us have any idea is. What's "easily explained" for guy X might be "way too convenient" for gal Y. ;p ;)x

[postalrat]

Not what people claimed they saw earlier that night.