Insiders Debunk UFO Reports at Area 51

(April 15) -- Area 51, the top-secret military installation in the Nevada desert, has been a magnet for conspiracy theories and a font of UFO sightings for decades. Now some people who worked at the mysterious base are speaking out.

For its April issue, the Los Angeles Times Magazine interviewed five men who worked at the facility, some of them for decades.

The men are talking now because in 2007, the CIA declassified information about a key project -- the A-12 Oxcart, a covert spy plane that was developed at Area 51. They have fascinating stories life at the base, including how the military responded to security breaches involving secret projects. But perhaps the most interesting part of the article is their response to the legends that have sprouted up about the installation.

One of the legends -- that Area 51 is connected to other secret sites by out-of-the-way railroads and underground tunnels -- is based on a nugget of truth. Thornton "T.D." Barnes, 72, who was an engineer at the facility, told the Times that he conducted his work in underground chambers.

"Three test-cell facilities were connected by railroad, but everything else was underground," he said.

And what about the slew of UFO sightings around Area 51? The Times attributed them to the Oxcart, which had a disk-like fuselage and flew at speeds of over 2,000 mph. The plane's titanium body was highly reflective, which also may have thrown anyone who caught a glimpse of it.

Air Force Col. Hugh "Slip" Slater, 87, was commander of Area 51 in the 1960s, and 2,850 Oxcart test flights were conducted when he was there. "That's a lot of UFO sightings!" he told the magazine.

When commercial pilots would report a UFO around Area 51, "they'd be met by FBI agents who'd make them sign nondisclosure forms," Slater said.

The Air Force had an operation called Project Blue Book to log such incidents from all around the country. By the time the Oxcart program was terminated in December 1969, it had received 12,618 reported sightings, 701 of which remained classified as "unidentified."

The CIA has a searchable database of declassified Oxcart information here.

The National Archives has a selection of documents related to the project here.