Rewind: Area 51, S4, and the Rise of Bob Lazar

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Sneaking Out to Watch the Test Flights

At 36:00 · chapter starts 35:30

By early 1989, the weight of secrecy at S4 was becoming unbearable for Lazar, and he had begun confiding in his close friend Gene Huff, a real estate appraiser. When Barry let slip that he had access to the flight test schedule — knowing which Wednesday nights the sport model would take to the sky — Lazar saw an opportunity. One March night, he drove his wife and Gene out into the Nevada desert, killed the headlights, and waited. What Gene captured on his camcorder was a bright light making sharp 90-degree turns no known aircraft could replicate. Lazar returned on subsequent Wednesdays, eventually bringing along John Lear — whose father invented the Lear jet, who had flown for the CIA during Vietnam, and who had become an ardent conspiracy theorist eager to witness something extraordinary. On Lear's visit, the group was caught by Area 51 security. The next day, Lazar was fired and told that if he ever approached Groom Lake again, he would face espionage charges. It was the moment that triggered everything that followed.