THE mystery surrounding Area 51 has always captured the public’s attention, with many theorizing what lies behind the top-secret government base.
The intense secrecy surrounding the base has often made it the subject of conspiracy theories, as some believe the facility is being used to house alien technology or extraterrestrial life.
What is Area 51?
Area 51 is located in the southern part of Nevadajust 133 miles northwest of Vegasand is the common name of a highly classified U.S. Air Force facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range.
Many believe the air base is home to the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems.
The US Air Force acquired the site in 1955.
However, the CIA did not acknowledge the facility’s existence until June 2013, following a 2005 Freedom of Information Act request.
The base has never been declared a secret base, but all investigations and events at Area 51 are top secret/sensitive compartmentalized information.
Conspiracy theorists believe the facility is used to store, research and reverse engineer crashed alien spacecraft, including material supposedly recovered during the Roswell crash of the 1950s.
Why is Area 51 so secretive?
The base was a testing ground for many top-secret aircraft, including the U-2 in the 1950s and later the B-2 stealth bomber.
Declassified documents say it was originally an area where Army Air Corps pilots could practice their aerial gunnery.
During the Cold War, experimental aircraft, such as the high-altitude U-2 spy plane, and weapons systems were tested there.
The current use of Area 51 is still unknown and remains top secret.
The ten by fifteen kilometer piece of fenced land is hidden between an American air base and an abandoned nuclear test site.
What is the Area 51 conspiracy theory?
The mysterious site is part of the vast Nevada Test and Training Range and has become the center of UFO conspiracy theories.
The so-called Roswell incident is one of the most debated and controversial UFO theories in history.
History.com calls the Roswell incident the “mother of all UFO sightings.”
In July 1947, a farmer found “mysterious debris” and soldiers from a nearby base came to collect the material.
Then came a giant leap when the newspapers reported that a ‘flying saucer’ crashed in an instant New Mexico city.
“Since then, conspiracy theorists have been hard at work proving that the wreckage was extraterrestrial, with one man, Ray Santilli, going so far as to release a video in 1995 of an alien ‘dissection’ that allegedly occurred after the incident. ” according to History.com.
Santilli admitted in 2006 that it was a staged film, but said it was based on real footage.
The military sensationally announced in a press release that it had found the remains of a crashed flying saucer in the desert.
But the next day it retracted the statement, saying it was in fact a damaged US Air Force blimp.