September 3, 1993: UFO's + Art & Ramona's Black Triangle Sighting - John Lear
Lear, drawing on his record-setting aviation career and intelligence contacts, suggests the object may have been a classified A-12 Avenger prototype, though the craft's silent operation and lack of aerodynamic lift remain unexplained. The conversation expands into the Fox television special on UFOs that aired the previous night, featuring Linda Moulton Howe, George Knapp, and Bob Lazar. Lear recounts how his public advocacy for UFO research cost him a senior captain position at a major airline after a decade of service. He describes the government's multi-layered security clearance system, with 28 levels of top secret crypto above standard top secret, and claims the president holds only a mid-level clearance. The discussion covers the alleged Mars Observer cover-up, the Face on Mars at Cydonia, and NASA's suppression of high-resolution imagery from the Martian surface.
A vivid, personal broadcast that blends Art Bell's own encounter with Lear's insider perspective on government secrecy.
Key Moments
Art's first-person Pahrump triangle sighting: Art recounts in detail his Sunday-night sighting near Pahrump: a roughly 100-foot black triangle at about 150 feet altitude, two white lights and one strobing red light, floating silently and too slowly to sustain conventional flight, witnessed by him and his wife Ramona for three to four minutes.
Lear fired by major airline for UFO research: Lear says a senior charter-airline captain job he held for ten years ended in twenty minutes after his employer asked if he believed in flying saucers, he said yes, and they took his ID and fired him on the spot.
28 levels of Top Secret Crypto and the President's clearance: Lear lays out his clearance hierarchy claim: above Top Secret there are 28 levels of Top Secret Crypto and 10 named clearances above that (Umbra, Ultra, Majestic), with the President holding only around TS Crypto 17 and getting filtered summaries from CIA, NSA, and DIA.
MJ-12, Truman, Eisenhower, and a withheld source: Lear traces the secret government to Truman's 1947 appointment of twelve men to MJ-12, says Eisenhower gave MJ-12 real teeth in the early 1950s and regretted it in his 1961 military-industrial-complex farewell, and promises to name his elderly top-military source for MJ-12's existence after that man dies.
Mars Observer was not lost - NASA hid it: Lear claims the Mars Observer did not fail; NASA staged the loss because Michael Malin's release plan for the Cydonia high-resolution images angered Congress and the public, and the spacecraft was secretly returning beautiful pictures via a downlink near Fresno.