The Phoenix Lights. What were they?

[AgnosticBoy]

Here's the scoop:

On March 13, 1997, two formations of light were sighted in the skies over the Valley and other parts of Arizona. One was shaped like V and cruised across the sky while the other was a series of glowing orbs that appeared in a line near the Sierra Estrella mountain range.

The two incidents became known as the Phoenix Lights, one of the largest and best-known UFO sightings in history. Thousands of people across Arizona witnessed the phenomena, which caused a hullabaloo in the media over the next few months that grew into a worldwide obsession.

Despite the public clamoring for answers about what caused the Phoenix Lights, both at the time and over the ensuing decades, no official investigation has ever occurred.

- Phoenix New Times

Grainy pic but the lights at the top are what were witnessed.

Or watch here, esp. at the 1 minute mark:

So what were these lights? UFOs? Flares? Drones?

My frustration with these stories is that there is a stigma with dealing with these topics which hinders investigation, and the government doesn't seem to have any good way of dealing with these encounters as seen with how they handled the China Spy Balloon incident.