This Pilot Takes Amazing Images Of Area 51 While Skirting Restricted Airspace

The highly classified US Air Force facility in Nevada commonly known as Area 51 has long been a source of intrigue for conspiracy theorists, some of whom believe that the site is used for studying crashed alien spaceships. Private pilot Gabriel Zeifman took to the skies this past weekend and captured some rare aerial photos of Area 51.

Zeifman has published a huge set of photos (including RAW files) from his flight over on Google Drive.

h/t: thedrive, petapixel, reddit

Regardless, some may be surprised to hear that private planes do legally fly along the borders and even into some of the ranges that make up the NTTR, offering a one of a kind aerial tour of a land that the government would like you to forget. One such aerial adventure was recently flown by private pilot Gabriel Zeifman in his little Cessna 150. He brought his camera along with him and the results are stunning.

“I’ve had an interest in all the military airspace out this way for a while and figured I had to go check it out,” Zeifman tells The Drive. “This last weekend, I was unable to get permission to fly into any of the restricted areas, so I took the opportunity to get some great pictures of […] as I skirted the perimeter. I don’t have any kind of special authorization in these airspaces, they’re just random transits that I’ve been given en route to other places when the airspace is cold. […] Aside from seeing the legendary Groom Lake, it’s been quite neat to see the other parts of the ranges including all the targets and infrastructure.”