While the music festival near Area 51 was canceled and substituted with a party in Las Vegas, that was a separate venture from the original Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us,” scheduled for this Friday, September 20. More than two million people have responded that they are going, but most of those responses came months ago. The military has no idea how many people will still try to get into Area 51, so they are instituting defense measures, including temporary flight restrictions (TFRs).
The TFR will be active from September 19th to the 23rd and range from the ground all the way to 18,000 feet. Only military aircraft are allowed overhead and even law enforcement and medical helicopters are subject to tight restrictions in order to enter the closed-off airspace. One can only imagine that the military will have plenty of airborne assets in place to tightly monitor the border with Area 51 in this area. The base already has a cadre of resident HH-60 Pave Hawks that run security operations over the base's sprawling territory and beyond.
The other TFR that has been posted is to the south, along the southern reach of the Nevada Test And Training Range where primary access to the Department Of Energy's Nevada Test Site, now known as the Nevada National Security Site, is located. It was just last week that a pair of Dutch Youtubers were arrested for trespassing beyond the site's perimeter. Another deeper incursion into the area last January ended with the driver being shot dead.
As you can see from the map above, Area 51 is completely surrounded by Department of Defense properties, with varying levels of access. So don't expect to see live aerial footage of whatever may happen on September 20th. Read more about the preparations for the possible storming at The Drive. -via Gizmodo
(Image credit: Finlay McWalter)