Just hours after President Donald Trump called for the release of UFO files, a top-secret Air Force jet was spotted near Area 51 on Friday morning.
Flight tracking data shows a Boeing 737-600, known as ‘Janet,’ departing from Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas’s main airport, at 4.06am PT (7.06am ET).
The jet headed toward the Tonopah Test Range, an area closely linked to Area 51 within Nevada’s Nellis Range Complex. Both highly classified sites are testing secret aircraft and advanced weapons.
Area 51 has long been rumored to host crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft and other mysterious technologies, leading some to speculate that Friday’s flight may be tied to Trump’s announcement.
The president directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to release government files related to aliens and UFOs after criticizing former President Barack Obama for allegedly confirming their existence on a podcast.
‘Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War… to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs),’ Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday night.
He added that the aim is to release ‘any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters.’
Area 51 has fueled decades of speculation, particularly since the Cold War, when its remote desert location and secret operations made it a natural target for UFO rumors.
The Janet, designed by Boeing, is a white jet with a single red strip from front to back. The fleet flies contractor employees, Department of Defense staff and military personnel to secure spaces that house classified information
The US government has acknowledged the base exists but says it is used for testing advanced military aircraft.
Janet jets are the primary mode of transport, designed by Boeing, white with a single red stripe running from nose to tail, and operating from a dedicated terminal since the remote facility cannot be accessed by regular vehicles.
The base has six runways for Janet planes, including a massive 12,000-foot strip, among the longest in the world, capable of handling flights to and from Las Vegas under tight security.
Trump made the announcement just hours after he lashed out at Barack Obama for allegedly sharing classified information when he appeared to confirm that aliens exist while speaking on a podcast.
He told reporters on his way to Georgia that Obama was ‘not supposed’ to share classified information after he appeared on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast and said aliens were ‘real.’
Obama added, ‘They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,’ joking that they are not kept at Area 51 as far as he knows.
Cohen asked Obama if extraterrestrials were real in an episode that aired January 14.
The jet headed toward the Tonopah Test Range, an area closely linked to Area 51 (PICTURED) within Nevada ’s Nellis Range Complex. Both highly classified sites are testing secret aircraft and advanced weapons
‘They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,’ Obama replied. He joked that they are not being kept at Area 51, as far as he knows.
His comments, delivered with a mix of humor and authority, amounted to a clear rejection of claims that the US government is secretly housing alien life forms at the classified base.
The secrecy surrounding Area 51 has fueled widespread conspiracy theories about its true purpose, but a resurfaced interview from an aviation journalist with firsthand sources who have worked there said the truth could be revealed this year.
Jim Goodall gave an interview in the mid-1990s where he discussed top-secret technologies at the site that ‘would make George Lucas envious.’
‘One gentleman spent 12 of his 30 years in black programs at Groom Lake [as Area 51 is also known],’ Goodall explained in the unearthed documentary interview.
‘I asked him, ‘Can you really tell me what’s happening out there?” he continued.
‘And he said, ‘Well, there are a lot of things going on there that I won’t be able to tell you until the year 2025.”
The mention of ‘2025’ could refer to an executive order by then-President Bill Clinton, which established a 25-year timer for the ‘automatic declassification’ of government secrets.
This means many top-secret projects from the 1990s could soon be declassified.
Goodall recounted a conversation with a ‘safety specialist’ and US Air Force chief master sergeant who worked at the Nevada test site.
The specialist reportedly told him: ‘We have things out there that are literally out of this world… better than Star Trek, or anything you can see in the movies.’
When Goodall asked his anonymous source, ‘Do you believe in UFOs?’ the answer was unequivocal.
‘He looked at me with a straight face, one-on-one, and said, ‘Absolutely. Positively. They do exist,” Goodall recalled in the documentary.
‘I said, ‘Can you expand upon that?’ And he replied, ‘No, I can’t.”
From his vantage point spying on Area 51 in the Nevada desert, Goodall caught glimpses and heard firsthand accounts of exotic craft that defied conventional understanding.
‘There is a stealth or low-observable electronic warfare aircraft. It’s been referred to as “Excalibur,” he said in the interview.
‘There’s an aircraft designed to fly very, very high, but also very, very slow and incredibly quiet,’ he added.
