Diego Garcia hangar account
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Witness | Stephen Walker, former U.S. Air Force flightline maintainer |
|---|---|
| Published | The War Zone, March 2020 |
| Place | Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory; later Dyess Air Force Base, Texas |
| Time | 2004–2005 bomber deployment (incident in 2005) |
| Event | Flightline evacuated and base locked down for an incoming classified aircraft that no one saw or heard |
| Witness's view | Probably a secret military aircraft; identity unknown |
| Date | 2005 |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 159 |
| Year | 2005 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2005 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 2 |
In a March 2020 article for The War Zone, the former Air Force maintainer Stephen Walker described being ordered indoors while an unseen classified aircraft arrived at Diego Garcia during a bomber deployment in 2004–2005.[1][2] Personnel had been told to keep away from a hangar the Navy was using that week. On the night of the lockdown they heard and saw nothing. He described a similar episode years later at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.[1] Walker did not suggest anything unearthly. He presented both as probable brushes with secret military aircraft whose identity he never learned.[1]
The deployment
In 2004 and 2005, during the "Global War on Terror", the Air Force's Air Combat Command kept a regular bomber rotation at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. B-1s, B-52s and occasional B-2s deployed there to stage combat missions over Afghanistan, and Walker's tour was part of that rotation.[1]
Walker described the island as follows:[1]
- The base. It is formally a U.S. Naval Support Facility, with a deep-water port and a runway long enough to receive the Space Shuttle.
- Status. It is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, which covers the Chagos Archipelago.
- Rumours. Its extreme isolation had made it "a hotbed" for unfounded claims of classified and sinister activity. He saw nothing of the kind himself. He was amused to read that the tent city where maintainers lived was supposedly a CIA "black site" for terrorist detainees.
The deployment was eventful in other ways. Early on, a tsunami spared the flightline and tent city but damaged the eastern side of the atoll, and tropical storms brought rain that seemed to come from every direction.[1]
The hangar
During one week in 2005, Air Force personnel were told that the Navy was conducting sensitive operations from a large, red, run-down hangar at the north end of the airfield, near the passenger terminal and base operations building. They were told to stay away. All week the hangar looked unused and empty.[1]
One night that week the flightline was evacuated and the base locked down. Air Force personnel were told to stay inside and away from windows to protect an incoming classified aircraft. Everyone complied.[1] With the B-1s' engines and auxiliary power units silent, Walker recalled hearing waves and wind through open windows. They listened for the sounds of a large jet landing: tyres hitting the runway, brakes, an idling engine or a turboprop.[1]
About half an hour later they were cleared to go back to work. Walker noted:[1]
- No one had heard or seen any sign of an arrival.
- No black spy plane was parked by the Navy ramp.
- There was no activity at the hangar.
As a lifelong aviation enthusiast, he admitted he had hoped to glimpse some rare jet.[1]
Dyess
Years later, at his home base of Dyess Air Force Base, west of Abilene, Texas, an operational readiness exercise was interrupted by a call from the command post. The flightline was to be evacuated at once because an aircraft no one was allowed to see was diverting to the base. Personnel were told to go inside and stay away from windows.[1] As at Diego Garcia, Walker detected no sign of the aircraft arriving or leaving, and nothing unusual was visible when they returned. He added that in nearly a decade at Dyess he knew of no hangar, building or part of the flightline ever set aside for a sensitive or classified project.[1]
What were they?
Walker said he had "no idea" what aircraft had visited on either occasion. Those who shared the experiences with him agreed they could not even guess.[1] The magazine pointed readers to its own reporting on known secret programs, which offered possible kinds of aircraft:[1]
- classified unmanned aircraft
- a long-sought stealthy special-forces transport
- the RQ-170 Sentinel
Walker compared his hopes to the SR-71, which emerged from Area 51 as a "glittering jewel" of American aerospace. He said he still hoped a future disclosure would match his times and places, though he thought it increasingly unlikely.[1]
He acknowledged that other service members tell similar stories of apparent brushes with "black" projects, "some seemingly factual, but many bordering on myth". He had filed his own two experiences under "the unknown".[1] He saw them as reminders that the military "appears to have some wondrous capabilities that lay tucked away out of sight".[1]
The author
Walker is an Air Force veteran and an airline transport and commercial helicopter pilot with about 5,000 flying hours. He has more than ten years' experience managing and flying private aircraft.[1] The article, first published on The Drive's site, is also available at The War Zone's own address.[2]
Assessment
Walker did not suggest anything unearthly. The episodes most likely involved classified aircraft, and no aircraft was ever seen.[1] They show how secret flight operations at ordinary bases can generate rumours. This is the same mechanism Walker described in the false "black site" claims about his own tent city.[1]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
On the Timeline
- Raechel's Eyes (2005) — A woman claims her daughter communicated with a hybrid being about secret projects.
- Kit Green's injury database (2005) — Kit Green begins a database of people injured in close encounters.
See every 2005 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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