Jason Sands desert encounter
The Jason Sands Desert encounter — also called the Nellis encounter or the Quartz Mountain encounter — was a reported close encounter of the third kind between Jason Sands, a United States Air Force intelligence specialist, and a non-human being encountered on a range road near Quartz Mountain, Nellis Test Range, Nevada, in October 1994. The Regulus being communicated via telepathy, requested material for his damaged craft resting on the desert floor nearby, and expressed hostility toward personnel at Groom Lake. The encounter occurred one week after the Nellis Test Range UFO sighting (1994) at the same location, in which the same craft had been recorded by the range's radar-linked cameras and witnessed by over ten personnel.
Pre-encounter context
On the Friday preceding the encounter, an unidentified craft flew past the Black Mountain schoolhouse on the Nellis Test Range and was recorded by the range's radar-linked cameras; at least ten personnel observed it directly. When Sands' relief crew arrived the following Monday morning, they were required to watch the footage and sign their names confirming they had seen it before being allowed to proceed up-range toward Black Mountain. A woman at the video operator's station stopped Sands as he was leaving and warned him there was someone on the range and not to speak to whoever they encountered. Anthony Williams, who later corroborated the account, noted that Sands' commanding officer had warned the crew before departing that they might encounter an anomalous individual and should not stop — indicating prior institutional awareness of activity in the area less than a week after a mass sighting at the same location.
The encounter
Sands' convoy proceeded up the range road toward Black Mountain and encountered a lone individual standing on the dirt road. The being — described in detail in the Regulus being article — appeared to have blue-toned skin, oversized eyes, no visible external ears, no hair, and a clean uniform without insignia. When Sands stepped out of the vehicle and made eye contact, he experienced a sudden primal fear response he compared to stumbling onto a rattlesnake — a reaction he attributes to the instant he registered the figure as non-human — that resolved as conversation began.
The being spoke orally in a language resembling Norwegian while Sands understood each utterance telepathically, with meaning arriving before words were spoken. Both parties shared a mind-space in which each could feel the other's emotional states as their own. The being requested a material that Sands could not identify and has referred to in various ways, for a craft repair; when Sands directed him toward Groom Lake, the being conveyed through the shared mind-space that he considered program personnel "barbarians and murderers" and refused. Sands offered an alternative — a geophysics professor at a Las Vegas community college with a possible metallurgist contact — which the being accepted as a potential avenue. In an interview, Sands recalled that the encounter might have lasted approximately five minutes after which the being walked back to the craft without farewell. Sands gave the being the inner liner of his jacket against the cold; the being initially declined but accepted when Sands insisted.
During the encounter, the other occupants of Sands' vehicle appeared to be in a trance-like state and most later had no memory of the stop. Only the driver — the ranking individual — retained any memory; when Sands reached out to him in 2022 at the request of the UAP Task Force, he went silent as soon as the 1994 incident was mentioned.
Later that same day at Black Mountain, Sands reports a second anomalous episode: compelled by an unexplained impulse to eat his lunch outside in the cold, he walked approximately 100–150 feet from the mountaintop and has no further memory until later in the day.
The craft
A damaged craft rested on the desert floor approximately 50 yards off the north shoulder of the road. When the being re-entered and departed, the craft produced a sound resembling a squeaking fan belt and moved in a stair-step vertical-and-horizontal pattern consistent with damaged vertical-propulsion systems. Sands later developed the hypothesis that the damage was caused by an altercation — possibly including a weapons discharge — within the classified program, explaining both the being's uniform and his hostility toward program personnel.
Aftermath
Under subsequent questioning by David Grusch, Sands recovered associated memories including a star map that Grusch identified as centered on Leo, with Regulus marked as the being's home system; the being had communicated that the red star had expanded in ancient times and destroyed the original homeworld.
Discovery and exposure
Sands first shared the account on a classified private online forum approximately two years before going public — around 2021. Williams confirmed in a May 2024 interview that the account was immediately regarded as the most detailed first-hand contact account in the group, distinguished by precise coordinates, named witnesses, and a sketch drawing of the being. Sands went public with James Fox in 2023, initially in a Twitter Spaces session before the film The Program came out.