weirder

Details remain scant about an unspecified U.S. Air Force aircraft, widely believed to be a drone of some kind, which came down in southern Nevada not far from Area 51 nearly two weeks ago. Whether the aircraft was ever actually inside Area 51’s highly restricted airspace, also known as “The Box,” is unknown. The mishap prompted authorities to temporarily close the airspace above the crash site, with some exemptions, while the wreckage was cleared. In a bizarre twist of events, the Air Force has publicly disclosed that it and the FBI are now investigating apparent strange tampering at the crash site afterward.

“On September 23, 2025, an aircraft assigned to the 432nd Wing was involved in an incident with no fatalities or injuries,” the Wing’s public affairs said in a release regarding the incident on October 4. ” The site was secured and guarded until recovery and cleanup operations were completed on September 27th.”

The 432nd Wing is headquartered at Creech Air Force Base. The flying squadrons assigned to the 432nd are primarily equipped with MQ-9 Reaper drones, but this is not the only type of aircraft the wing operates, as we will come back to later on.

“During a follow-on site survey on October 3rd, investigators discovered signs of tampering at the mishap location, including the presence of an inert training bomb body and an aircraft panel of unknown origin that were placed on the site post-incident,” the release put out this past weekend added. “The matter is under investigation by Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the FBI. No further details are available at this time.”

Officials at Creech had previously confirmed a connection to the incident, and that there had been no fatalities, injuries, or property damage as a result of the crash, in statements to various local news outlets. They also said that an investigation into the mishap was underway. TWZ reached out to Creech today for any updates, and authorities there said they had no further comment at this time.

The Air Force has not confirmed the exact location of the crash site. However, it appears to have been around 12 miles to the east of the security boundary around the top-secret flight test center at Groom Lake in Nevada, better known as Area 51, and some 24 and a half miles from the facility itself. This is based on the coordinates at center of airspace restrictions that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed between September 23 and October 1. The TFR, the center of which was also roughly 57 miles to the northeast of Creech, extended five nautical miles in all directions and covered all airspace up to 15,000 mean sea level (MSL).

The only reason the FAA gave for imposing the TFR was “national security.” The Radar Approach Control at Nellis Air Force Base, further to the southeast of Creech, was listed as a point of contact for pilots. TWZ has reached out to FAA for more information.

The TFR had quickly caught the attention of plane spotters and others due to the curious circumstances and its proximity to Area 51. As mentioned, no connection between the incident and Area 51 has so far been confirmed. The coordinates at the center of the TFR were also on the edge of part of the sprawling ranges managed by authorities at Nellis Air Force Base, further to the south.

In a live stream on September 23, Joerg Arnu, a long-time Area 51 researcher, webmaster of the site Dreamland Resort, and local resident, said he believed the aircraft that went down had come from Creech and had been associated with an especially large exercise in the area, but also that he did not know for sure. Arnu subsequently visited the apparent crash site after recovery efforts ended on September 27, as seen in the video below.

The Air Force has confirmed the Creech connection, but little else.

As noted, most of the units at Creech fly MQ-9s, but Reaper crashes are hardly uncommon, and the drone is very much a known quantity after nearly two decades of Air Force service. While a Reaper’s particular configuration, or the stores it may have been carrying, could be very sensitive, one of these drones going down seems unlikely to have prompted this level of secrecy. This is underscored by what the service has disclosed about MQ-9 crashes at home and abroad over the years, even when there are certain operational sensitivities.

Creech is also home to the secretive 30th and 44th Reconnaissance Squadrons, which are the only units confirmed to date as operators of RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drones. Whether or not those squadrons, or any others based at Creech, fly other types of drones, including ones that may not yet have come out into the light, is unknown. RQ-170s do participate in exercises, especially in the ranges around Nellis.

Transient aircraft, crewed and uncrewed, also regularly fly in and out of Creech, but the Air Force has said explicitly that whatever went down belonged with the 432nd Wing.

What the Air Force has shared about possible tampering at the crash site after the fact, as is the basic disclosure that the service is investigating that in cooperation with the FBI. The statement from the 432nd Wing makes clear that the site was only secured and under guard until recovery and cleanup operations were finished, raising questions about what concerns there might be around any tampering afterward, in general. Things do fall off of aircraft, especially in the USAF’s premier range complex, although the timing would seem odd in this case for these objects to appear so soon after the mishap. Still, coincidences happen, but what may have been unique or peculiar about these objects, such as their age, origin, and placement, is unclear.

It remains to be seen what additional details may emerge as the investigations into the mishap and possible tampering of the crash site after the fact proceed.

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

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A decade ago, “Weird Al” Yankovic launched his 12th concert tour, which covered 200 shows over two years. Somewhere along the line, the pop world’s foremost parodist was backstage putting on a fat suit “for literally the 1,000th time” when he was suddenly struck by the desire to “go out on stage and do a show like a regular musician.”

Soon after, he launched his “Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour,” playing small venues with no video screens, no costume changes, no props or choreography, and none of the song parodies that made him famous. The songs were still comedic — “Everything I write winds up a little warped,” he says — but were original tunes that were pastiches of, say, Frank Zappa or They Might Be Giants’ style. He enjoyed it so much he revived the concept a couple of years ago.

Yankovic, 65, has also not released a parody song for more than a decade, in part, he says, because there’s no longer a “monoculture where it’s more obvious what the hits are,” but also because he enjoys the challenges of those original pastiches, some of which take months for him to develop.

“I wanted to prove that I’m more than just the parody guy,” says Yankovic, who also co-wrote the 2022 TV film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.” The loopy biopic satire starred Daniel Radcliffe and earned Yankovic an Emmy nomination for his writing. (Recently, he also had self-parodying cameo in “Naked Gun.”)

“The smaller tours cleansed the palate for me and were fun for my band and the hardcore fans,” he says. “But now we’re back playing the big tent. We’ve ramping up the silliness.”

(Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times)

Now, having proved he was more than the parody guy, Yankovic has re-embraced the whole full-throated “Weird Al” parody thing — his “Bigger & Weirder” tour, which comes to the Kia Forum in Inglewood on Saturday, features plenty of video screens, lots of costume changes and props, and twice as many band members.

And, of course, it features parodies covering decades of pop music: The Knack (“My Bologna”), Michael Jackson (“Eat It”), Madonna (“Like a Surgeon”), Coolio (“Amish Paradise”), Nirvana (“Smells Like Nirvana”) and Robin Thicke (“Word Crimes”).

“The smaller tours cleansed the palate for me and were fun for my band and the hardcore fans,” he says. “But now we’re back playing the big tent. We’re ramping up the silliness.”

That includes reviving not just old songs but also old bits. “Some fans feel comfort in repetition, which is OK,” he says. While he’ll change up individual jokes, “we’re trying not to change too much what people came to see — if we don’t fulfill their expectations, they’re liable to walk away disappointed.”

(His fans are committed enough that some even parody his songs with their own rewrites. Yankovic is particularly impressed by Steve Goodie, who parodied his “Hardware Store” with “Dumbledore” and even has a one-man show called “AL! The Weird Tribute (and How Daniel Radcliffe Got Mixed Up in This Nonsense).” “It’s fun and gratifying and a little ‘Inception’-like,” Yankovic says, although he has yet to parody Goodie’s parody.)

And so band newcomer Probyn Gregory, a musician who worked with Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel and Eric Clapton, spends “Smells Like Nirvana” dressed like a janitor and mopping the stage as part of the performance. “He’s an amazing artist, but you can’t have a sense of shame and be part of this entourage,” Yankovic says.

For the most part, of course, Yankovic is putting Gregory and the other multi-instrumentalists he hired to more practical uses — three of them are women because he wanted three-part female harmonies, but between them they also can add percussion, guitar, saxophones and more. “I needed somebody that could play the trumpet and then someone to play clarinet for the polkas,” he says. “In the arenas, I hear our sound and think, ‘Wow, this is much, much bigger than it’s ever been.’”

It’s also more layered, with all those instruments enabling him to “stretch and do songs that were out of our reach as a five-piece.”

To show off his band, Yankovic drops the funny stuff at one point in each show, covering a classic song and playing it straight. In recent weeks, the group has played Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” George Harrison’s “What Is Life,” the Box Top’s “The Letter,” the Doobie Brothers’ “China Grove,” and even Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.”

“It’s a rotating slot and almost every night is something different,” he says. The fans get into it, he says, although when he talks to them about it, he sometimes finds their reactions “baffling.”

“People sometimes say, ‘Oh, you guys can really play. You can really do real music,’” he says. “What do you think we’ve been doing? Just because the words are funny, it’s not real music?”

Yankovic is a “pop culture sponge” and has always listened to various music genres, first for pleasure and then for work. “I just like to soak it in and regurgitate it in my own demented way,” he says. But he was also raised on Dr. Demento, and was heavily influenced by Spike Jones, Tom Lehrer, Allan Sherman, and Monty Python. Those comedians taught him that craftsmanship matters even, or especially, when you’re being silly.

“I think that the craftsmanship is one of the reasons that the humor works so well and I think the best parody is material that emulates the original source as closely as possible,” he says. “It helps the joke if you’re sucked into thinking you’re listening to a particular pop song and then think, ‘Wait a minute, these aren’t the lyrics I’m used to.’”

For that to work, the craftsmanship in his writing and arranging must be matched by the musicianship in his band; he hopes his audience appreciates both sides of that coin.

He adds that he thinks he personally has improved over time. “I think I’m a better singer now than I was in the ’80s and I’m a better musician and a better arranger,” he says.

Even with the four newcomers, Yankovic relies heavily on his original band. “I’ve got one of the best bands in the world and they do every genre flawlessly, and that’s what helps make the whole act work,” he says. “The core band has been together for over 40 years and we’re kind of telepathic in the way we communicate now, so we’re a lot better than we were back in the day.”