JANET - The Deep State's Airline

By

       George Sontag

      The Deep State and the Shadow Government have kept their secrets from the American public for decades. Transportation of people and materials around the country and the world without arousing suspicion is essential to the clandestine activities. Business Insider has reported that the secret airline operates out of a private terminal at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Called Janet Airlines, it is the heart of an entire clandestine defense ecosystem that is spread across the deserts of the American southwest.

The secret airline, called JANET, that the government uses to covertly ferry people around. As it turns out, this secret airline not only flies under the radar, but also flies in and out of commercial airports.

 

      

      Janet Airlines, is the unofficial name given to a large and highly classified fleet of passenger aircraft operated for the United States Air Force (USAF) to transport the military, contractors, and un-named others. It mainly serves the Nevada National Security Site (most notably Area 51 and the Tonopah Test Range), from a private terminal at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport. Popular Mechanics reports that JANET’s area of the airport bears the codename, “Gold Coast Terminal.” The fleet's "Janet" call sign, from which its de facto name comes, is said to stand for "Just Another Non-Existent Terminal" Though it’s been reported that AECOM operates JANET’s aircraft, Popular Mechanics reports that we’re not 100% sure who runs the Gold Coast Terminal.

      All Janet aircraft are owned by the U.S. Air Force, registered either to an office at Hill AFB in Utah, or a PO Box in nearby Layton, Utah. While they’re technically owned by the USAF, the aircraft are currently thought to be operated by a division of the AECOM corporation. Even though the secret airline’s planes may be in plain sight at the Las Vegas airport, there are still plenty of things that we don’t know about JANET. As Popular Mechanics notes, due to the airline's secretive nature, little is known about its organization and we can’t say with 100% certainty where — or whom — these planes fly.

       As of mid-2015, the Janet fleet consists of six Boeing 737-600s painted white with a prominent red cheatline. There are also five smaller executive turboprops painted white with less prominent blue trim stripes. The fleet is registered to the Department of the Air Force. You can see Janet airplanes at several airports throughout the U.S. You can hear them on air traffic control. You can fly one in Microsoft Flight Simulator X. But you can’t buy a ticket on a Janet flight, and the people who fly on Janet flights can’t tell you, or even their families, what they do for work. It is seemingly an airline that flies to nowhere.

      When you fly with a commercial airline, you’ll board a plane that bears the airline’s logo in several places but as Business Insider notes, JANET’s planes don’t carry identifying markings like the aircraft that belong to other airlines. Instead, they just bear a horizontal red stripe (for the Boeing aircraft). Or, they have blue trim stripes (for the Beechcraft planes), plus their registration numbers.

      Can you fly on Janet airlines? The answer is NO! Everyone aboard needs Top Secret security clearance. As Business Insider reports, even flight attendants who work for the airline have to qualify for and maintain a Top Secret security clearance. Getting that clearance — the highest level — can be a pretty arduous process. The application requires you to divulge “nearly every bit of information about yourself relating to personal and business finances, residences, employment history, criminal behavior, prior military service, citizenship, and criminal behavior.” An investigator also interviews your employers, neighbors, spouse, and acquaintances. And you have to take a polygraph exam.

      Curious where the airline actually flies? It’s when Janet flights cross from civilian airspace into restricted military airspace that things get really interesting. After checking in with Nellis Control, the Janet then continues into the “Special Use Airspace” but not before Nellis Control approves a frequency change for the Janet. What’s telling in the subtlety of the handoff is what isn’t said; the Nellis controller never specifies which frequency for the Janet to switch to. That’s because the Janet already knows the new frequency. And in addition to the frequency change, it’s call sign has changed, too. It’s no longer “Janet 210” or “Janet 301,” it’s now something else entirely, like “Racer 25” or “Bones 58.” It’s flying inside the most restricted airspace on Earth, heading directly towards a veritable black hole of information. 

      Popular Mechanics reports that “most of the time,” JANET’s planes take off from Las Vegas, head north, then turn off their transponders and disappear from trackers after spending just 15 minutes in the air. One of the places these Janet 737’s go is located inside the airspace described as R-4808N on the map below. “The Box,” or “The Container,” as R-4808N is known, is off-limits. It is restricted airspace within restricted airspace, and incursions into its sanctum are most unwelcome. And yet, the unassuming white and red 737’s are shepherded through routinely, where they disappear before reappearing after different lengths of time.

       It also reportedly shuttles employees and contractors into Area 51, the most famous of the U.S. government’s top secret military bases that the U.S. government still maintains doesn’t exist. It is situated in Airspace 4808 North known as some of the most protected airspace in the world, with fighter jets on duty to shoot down intruders. But JANET’s aircraft regularly go in and out of Airspace 4808 North without incident.

       Area 51 is situated inside the larger Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), which is made up of many smaller distinct zones with different purposes. Many sections of the NTTR have been assigned other Area “X” identifiers (yes, there is an Area 52). Surrounding Area 51 is the restricted Nellis Air Force Range, covering an immense swath of southern Nevada. Apparently, somewhere within or near Area 19 in the northern part of the Nevada Test Site is a hidden runway, totally camouflaged to match the surrounding terrain. According to legend, the runway is capable of revealing its location as needed, using a system of sprinklers to quickly unveil its dimensions. Claims have suggested that a 737 could theoretically be capable of operating from the mysterious vanishing airstrip. The multi-tiered secrecy surrounding the Janet jets, the unusual ways they operate and the places they go are one of aviation’s greatest legends. If it all seems like a big clandestine operation, that’s because it is.