VIDEO: Tour bus accidentally drives into Area 51

Imagine what happens when someone trespasses into the safest security perimeter in the world and getting busted. That is the ordeal a few tourists had to go through when their tour guide accidently drove into a restricted site of in Area 51. A few moments into the drive, they were tailed by a security truck and were ordered to get off the van immediately.

The van that trespassed into the perimeter belonged to Adventure Photo Tours, a company based in Nevada. This happened when the driver of the van, Dennis Ryan got distracted due to a question asked by a passenger regarding sports. He was so engrossed in answering the question that, he missed the sign that warned to watch out for the boundary. Within a minute or two from then on, they were pulled down by the security truck that followed them within no time. The driver realized it and before even stopping the van, he apologized to the passengers saying that they were being followed by “men in black”.

This incident came to light when the reporter George Knapp reported it first on KLAS TV’s program, 8 News Now. Knapp has a history related to Area 51 as he covered the story of an apparent whistleblower who worked at the highly secret and covert base. It stated that the man worked in the reverse engineering process of alien technology back in 1989. With such reports grabbing the interest of viewers, thousands of visitors were attracted to this base over a short span of time.

Donna Tyron, the co-owner of Adventure Photo Tours told KLAS, “Some of the tourists are just curious. They don’t know what it’s about. Others believe they have been abducted. Other people believe they are aliens and they want to go back out there to hopefully get back home. We get all kinds of people.” She also added that the tours they conduct around Area 51 consist of a lot of stops. But, their customers are keen to see spots where “Keep out!” warnings are posted. Also, the drivers from her company warn the passengers in advance about the signs and also clearly mention that if the passengers cross the lines marked by Area 51 authorities, they would be on their own and the drivers are not responsible for the consequences.

Claims made by the tour company says that their drivers are always safe, but mistakes do happen in every business. However, a mistake cannot go unnoticed in a business that involves taking people to one of the top installation facilities in the world. But this small detour cost them hefty, both financially and mentally. Area 51 has tied up with Lincoln County for all legal matters and hence, as this was a trespassing case, the tourist group had to wait for authorities from Lincoln County. Upon their arrival, they charged them citing charges of trespassing and gave them court dates. Among the tourists were a mother and son from the east coast of United Kingdom and they had to bear the brunt too. The tourists were convicted and were fined $650 each. Will Tyron from Amazing Photo Tours, also expressed his anxiety that he feared a bench warrant might be used against the trespassers, turning the otherwise good tourists into apparent criminals.

However, the Lincoln County District Attorney failed to believe that this incident was an accident and claimed that the trespassers committed the act deliberately to see the repercussions. Later, when the media house KLAS which covered this incident, contacted the DA and explained him that the whole incident was recorded on video, the DA decided to change his decision. Upon viewing the video, the DA realized that the expression of the driver was that of a shock and did not seem like it was an act of mischief.

Ultimately, the DA had to change his decision and then dropped all charges against the driver, as the trespassing happened deliberately and not on purpose. Also, conditions were imposed on the driver that he was not supposed to visit areas in the vicinity of Area 51 for the next two years. The DA strictly imposed that the video that was recorded should not be made public and as per Knapp, the reporter from KLAS, this was because of the fact that several security trucks were caught coming out of Area 51 on camera and was visible in the video. Knapp also joked that no flying saucers or secret aircrafts were spotted in the video, lightening the moment. The passengers indeed had to go through an ordeal but ultimately, their tour around a secret facility turned into a traumatic experience.