Area 51 in Nevada is one of the most mysterious locations in the United States, but after buying land on its border, one man was watched and buzzed by a pair of F-16s and a Ford F-150 pickup truck.
Anders Otteson, who runs the Uncanny Expeditions YouTube channel, purchased a small plot of land near Area 51, the site of numerous secret US military projects, including the SR-71 Blackbird.
Despite being outside of the area, it still bordered the top-secret location.
That led to an interesting encounter, leading to two military fighter aircraft buzzing him from above.
This is the land that the YouTuber bought near Area 51
The plot of land that Otteson bought was quite small.
It was just 2.5 acres, which he bought for $2,000 sight unseen.
Located near the Rachel Gate, Otteson plans to use it for storage, and he is just outside the Area 51 perimeter.
“Sending the drone up, I can make out the back gate over here,” he said in the video.
To the west of his land, there is an access road that leads directly to the base.
We got to see how tight security is as well, with Ford F-150 pickup trucks nearby.
Guards lingered at the front gates until tourists had moved on.
It’s later on in the video, however, when Otteson is spotted by the pickup truck and military jets.
Otteson was buzzed by security at the secret location
Otteson went mountain climbing to get some stunning views of the area.
It was here that he had a white Ford F-150 keeping watch on him from below.
Belonging to a ‘camo dude’, pickups regularly patrol the area to keep an eye on anything suspicious.
With such an enigma around it, Area 51 is a major tourist hotspot, despite its tight security.
The view from the hills also gave Otteson a great view of the restricted airspace around the site.
This included a pair of F-16s.
“A pair of F-16s from Nellis flew overhead,” he said in the video.
While they will have been on a regular flight, the F-16s are always keeping an eye out for anyone in the area.
A Ford F-150 also stealthily drove by at night to keep an eye on the YouTuber as he camped.
Even though it’s been in operation for decades, Area 51 is still a closely guarded secret.
Area 51 history
1955: Established by the CIA at Groom Lake for the testing and development of the U-2 spy plane
1960s: Served as the primary test site for the A-12 Oxcart and the iconic SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft
Late 1960s-1970s: Captured Soviet MiG fighter jets are secretly evaluated and flown at the installation to study enemy flight capabilities
1977: The base begins hosting flights for the Have Blue prototype, marking a major leap forward in experimental stealth technology
1981: The first flight of the F-117 Nighthawk stealth ground-attack aircraft takes place at the secretive location
1989: Bob Lazar claims on television to have reverse-engineered alien spacecraft nearby. Catapults the facility into global pop culture and UFO lore
1995: The US government seizes nearly 4,000 additional acres of public land around the perimeter to further restrict civilian viewpoints and maintain secrecy
2013: The CIA officially acknowledges the existence of the detachment for the very first time in a batch of declassified U-2 history documents
2019: A viral internet joke titled ‘Storm Area 51’ results in alien-themed festivals in nearby Nevada towns, though no actual breaches of the perimeter occur
Present Day: The remote airfield remains a highly classified United States Air Force facility. Likely focused on advanced drone technology and next-generation stealth projects
