A YouTuber who runs a channel focused on surveillance footage is now facing serious federal charges after allegedly flying a drone over the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, an ultra-secure facility often called the “underground Pentagon.” Stuart Dale Bennett, who operates the “Area 82 Surveillance911” channel, is accused of recording aerial footage of the highly sensitive site and posting those clips online.
Raven Rock is a massive, self-contained, 650-acre underground city hidden inside a hollowed-out mountain near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. It is designed to serve as an emergency relocation site for top US officials and key military operations in the event of a nuclear attack or major disaster, and its purpose is to ensure the continuity of government (COG). In terms of secrecy, it is often compared to Area 51, but its actual function makes Area 51 look like a tourist attraction.
According to The Independent, the investigation began on September 8, 2025, when an unidentified US military official contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) after spotting a YouTube channel that had posted drone footage of the facility just a week earlier.
Bennett’s own digital trail made it easy for investigators to build a strong case against him
Ten days later, the FBI joined the investigation and traced the account’s IP address, then subpoenaed YouTube for the associated email and recovery phone numbers, which identified the user “mtsxhacker” as Bennett, partly because he had previously used those same contact details to submit unrelated complaints to the FBI.
The videos posted on the channel had titles including “Raven Rock Mountain Complex COG Site (2nd Pentagon)” and another referencing “secret squirrel antennae.” The channel also had a separate folder titled “Classified Secret Sites,” which contained about seven videos of drone overflights of US government facilities.
YouTuber facing charges after flying drone over 'underground
— Simo Saadi (@Simo7809957085) February 16, 2026
Pentagon'
Stuart Dale Bennett accused of violating airspace above the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, a secure facility where top US officials will be whisked in the event of nuclear war pic.twitter.com/loCwqN6gce
The affidavit filed in the case states that the videos appeared to show critical infrastructure important to national security. The FBI has been handling a number of high-profile cases recently, and you can read about one of the bureau’s most unusual recent investigations to get a sense of how active the agency has been.
On September 24, a federal magistrate judge approved three search warrants. The following day, agents seized a Potensic Atom drone, four micro-SD cards, and an HP Z240 Tower Workstation from Bennett’s bedroom. During the search, his computer monitor was logged into the YouTube channel and appeared to be processing a new video for upload.
A specialized unit called the Center for Air and Marine Drone Exploitation extracted footage from one of the micro-SD cards, revealing recordings of Raven Rock, specifically an area called “Site C,” reportedly a key communications hub.
Bennett was interviewed by the FBI and NCIS on November 10, 2025. He admitted to owning and flying the drone, not being properly licensed, and running the YouTube channel. He also admitted that he knew he was not permitted to fly unmanned aircraft over military bases.
He claimed that someone named “Elliott” had given him a list of government sites to fly over, including Raven Rock. The FBI has also been busy on other fronts, including a dangerous lab linked to deadly pathogens that raised serious public safety concerns.
