Pilot Takes Amazing Images Of Area 51 And Tonopah Air Base While Skirting Restricted Airspace

[Flyaway]

Nothing startling but still some very picturesque images.

Pilot Takes Amazing Images Of Area 51 And Tonopah Air Base While Skirting Restricted Airspace

A private pilot had one heck of an adventure through the Nevada Test and Training Range, getting very rare looks at the shadowy installations.

www.thedrive.com

 

[Foo Fighter]

Why do these idiots do this?

 

[Hobbes]

The same reason we discuss secret projects.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Why do these idiots do this?

What makes him an idiot? A perusal of the article indicates that he took no special risks and broke no laws.

 

[dan_inbox]

Deliberately exposing --or at least risking to expose-- information that is classified as secret?
As if the foreign spies needed help...

 

[Foo Fighter]

The people on security must have nerves on a thin edge so anything that stretches those nerves even more is puerile and irresponsible, he's lucky he isn't trying it on with some other nations, he would have the equivalent of a Viking burial from a reasonable height. It is NOT big and it is NOT smart.

 

[Mr London 24/7]

Huh?

Nothing can be seen which is classified, nor which isn’t already available to advanced nations with their own imaging sats - or indeed anybody with access to several commercial imagery platforms.

Base Security will have the times of satellite flyovers and nearby private or commercial flights, and of course tracks potential ground observers at the perimeter - anything sight-sensitive is moved indoors.

 

[flateric]

Deliberately exposing --or at least risking to expose-- information that is classified as secret?
As if the foreign spies needed help...

I wonder if you have _read_ the article.

 

[sferrin]

Deliberately exposing --or at least risking to expose-- information that is classified as secret?
As if the foreign spies needed help...

Do you think he got more useful pictures than satellites?

 

[Orionblamblam]

Do you think he got more useful pictures than satellites?

Or the Chinese spies who doubtless work there. Or, indeed, the Russian aircraft that are allowed even closer:
The Russians Just Did A Fly-By Of Area 51

A guy in a Cessna with a hand-held camera is not seeing anything that The Other Guys don't get to see far more clearly.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Deliberately exposing --or at least risking to expose-- information that is classified as secret?

In the US, that's no crime, as we have no Official Secrets Act. If you are in a public place you are legally allowed to be, you are allowed to take pictures. After 911 there was some kerfuffle about whether people should be allowed to photograph nuclear powerplants and such, but I don't think it stuck. So if the Department of Defense is waving their top secret F-303's around, they can't tell you to not photograph it.

 

[dan_inbox]

In the US, that's no crime, as we have no Official Secrets Act.

That's understood. Not being prohibited does not make it smart and responsible.

So if the Department of Defense is waving their top secret F-303's around, they can't tell you to not photograph it.

And of course it is the duty of every normal citizen to make life more complicated for the government if he can, and to poke it in the eye at every opportunity. And to rush to post it on Reddit.

Now I would not expect much more understanding from this man, he is probably only as smart as he looks on the selfie he published.

Different countries, different cultures. I keep being surprised by how Americans misconstrue Liberty into a lack of civic cooperation with the government and disregard for any consequences on national interest. Not only 16-years-old, also middle-aged adults who should have grown up and MATURED.

And that's surely a discussion for another forum.

 

[Orionblamblam]

And of course it is the duty of every normal citizen to make life more complicated for the government if he can, and to poke it in the eye at every opportunity. And to rush to post it on Reddit.

I suspect you post that sarcastically. For any good American, those are words to live by.

It's one thing for someone to break locks or their oaths of secrecy to dig up and disseminate secrets. it's quite another for someone to point a camera out the window. If someone flying a normal airplane, with a normal camera, flying a normal route through legal airspace, can damage national security... it's not on the pilot, it's on the idjit government types who dropped trou and started flapping their secrets in the wind like a drunk frat boy or instagram thot.

 

[Flyaway]

Deliberately exposing --or at least risking to expose-- information that is classified as secret?
As if the foreign spies needed help...

Do you regularly shake your fist at the skies cursing commercial imaging sats?

Some posters on this thread must have a really low opinion of the people running this base, if they think they would allow anything classified to be exposed by a guy legally flying his plane and using a consumer camera.

 

[dan_inbox]

Some posters on this thread must have a really low opinion of the people running this base, if they think they would allow anything classified to be exposed

Interesting misunderstanding. The discussion was precisely about the other side of the coin, ie whether it is responsible for a citizen to risk divulging classified information in case any was inadvertently visible. If "idjit government types dropped trou", as Scott put it. Apparently for some people exposing it is something "to live by", national interest be damned.

I am used to the other approach: government types are only humans, screwups do happen and can result in undesired exposure. Any sensible citizen with a minimum of maturity who happens to see such an exposure would take it upon himself to a) shut up, b) advise the "idjits" of the lapse so they fix it.
This way we may miss an opportunity to make a buzz on Reddit, yes. Or the pleasure to poke the government in the eye. But we consider the potential cost.

Anyone remembers "loose talk can cost lives" ? It's less dramatic and pressing today, but at minimum leaked info can cost a fortune to taxpayers in R&D to re-establish an edge in weapons or whatever if it was squandered. Does a small ego pleasure warrant being responsible for that ? Not for me.

 

[uk 75]

Deliberately exposing --or at least risking to expose-- information that is classified as secret?

In the US, that's no crime, as we have no Official Secrets Act. If you are in a public place you are legally allowed to be, you are allowed to take pictures. After 911 there was some kerfuffle about whether people should be allowed to photograph nuclear powerplants and such, but I don't think it stuck. So if the Department of Defense is waving their top secret F-303's around, they can't tell you to not photograph it.

you mean like this?

 

[TomS]

That said, sometimes one ought to shut up. I remember being at a conference once (something to do with sonar) with media present. In one presentation, there was a nice graphic of the output of a given system. One of the audience members asked the presenter some technical questions about the frequency and resolution of the system. Presenter replied that this was obviously classified. Audience member commented that it was possible to derive the info he asked about from the info shown on screen. Again, with reporters in the room. That was probably more of a security violation than the original slide -- accidental security through obscurity can work until someone calls attention to it.

 

[Orionblamblam]

That said, sometimes one ought to shut up.

Oh, sure. *Sometimes.*

I think of it like this: when should you post "classified" information? The same time you post naked photos of your neighbor. Attend:
1) You break into your neighbors house and secretly plant a camera: Not only should you not post the photos, you should be arrested.
2) You are invited into your neighbors bedroom for a bit of naughtytime, and you sneak in a camera: Not only should you not post the photos, you should be arrested.
3) Your neighbor is wandering the streets butt-nekkid in broad daylight: it's lawful to publish those photos, because it's public, there is no expectation of privacy, and it may be newsworthy.
4) Your neighbor is a powerful politician and you've just spotted him/her/xer/them butt-nekkid chasing a child into a dark alley: posting those photos is a social good.

Translating these hypotheticals from "naked photos of neighbor" to "photos of the alien spacecraft on the secret base runway" is straightforward.

 

[_Del_]

I saw something the government probably prefers I did not see, while innocently boating minding my own business in the middle of a crowded bay with my family. Most people probably didn't realize it, even if they saw it, but they made no effort to hide it. I choose not to share because A) it's nothing so exciting as a super top secret spaceship, most would not explain the significance without explanation, and B) I am aware that they would prefer it not advertised, even if adversaries probably already know.

But there is nothing illegal or even unethical about posting photos. If someone else of the hundreds out and about that day noticed and spread their pictures, I wouldn't be outraged. I'd laugh and say, "Well, THAT cat's out of the bag, guys". It's the government 's duty to secure their secrets, not the citizenry.

There's nothing in those Groom photos that could not be seen on a commercial satellite. If you don't think the base is aware of civilian air traffic, you're kidding yourself. You have to get cleared into that route in the first place. If some one left their delicates exposed (they didn't), that's not on them, not the guy tooling around in his toy with permission with a camera.

 

[In_A_Dream]

Bob Lazar was right after all.










There really is a dry lake bed at Papoose Lake.

 

[Nigelhg]

The guys on the Dreamland resort forum were tracking the plane using flight radar for weeks before the photos appeared. There was much speculation if it really was a Cessna as he made it up to 11000 feet at one point. The photographer has now reached out to the forum and they've some great enhanced shots up now.
Great panorama shot in the link below.

https://dlr.thexhunters.com/area51/aerial_0420_01.jpg

 

[Foo Fighter]

My only problem is that in flying close enough to get those pictures they get close enough to make security personnel nervous, all it takes is one itchy trigger finger too many and there is someone spread all over the desert. Not exactly great for one's chances to reach pension point.

 

[Mr London 24/7]

My only problem is that in flying close enough to get those pictures they get close enough to make security personnel nervous, all it takes is one itchy trigger finger too many and there is someone spread all over the desert. Not exactly great for one's chances to reach pension point.

Such flights have been intercepted or buzzed by the base F-16’s or Blackhawk’s in the past, but Security has been the primary watchword of this site for decades now, I doubt very much old Gabes flight even raised any pulses at the Base: probably a greater chance of some in-flight mishap or mechanical issue than being blasted out of the sky...

 

[thedewline]

I took this picture of Groom Lake from a window seat on an American Airlines flight with a 55mm lens, and that was the second time I came within picture-taking distance of Area 51 on a commercial airway. The facility can be easily viewed by hundreds, if not thousands, of airline passengers on every clear day. That's why anything they want to keep secret should be happening at night. So nobody should have a problem with daytime pictures from legal airspace.

 

[Foo Fighter]

My only problem is that in flying close enough to get those pictures they get close enough to make security personnel nervous, all it takes is one itchy trigger finger too many and there is someone spread all over the desert. Not exactly great for one's chances to reach pension point.

Such flights have been intercepted or buzzed by the base F-16’s or Blackhawk’s in the past, but Security has been the primary watchword of this site for decades now, I doubt very much old Gabes flight even raised any pulses at the Base: probably a greater chance of some in-flight mishap or mechanical issue than being blasted out of the sky...

Damn shame, there really is no other news coming out of the site, not real news.