How Avgeeks Uncovered President Trump’s Secret Trip to Iraq

Everyone knows Air Force One is the iconic Boeing 747 that the President of The United States uses for air transportation, right? Well, that’s actually incorrect. A common misconception is that the physical aircraft — that iconic blue and white modified Boeing 747 also known as VC-25A — is Air Force One. But Air Force One isn’t actually an aircraft; rather, it’s the unique call sign or designator used to identify any aircraft with the sitting President of The United States on board.

In theory, a Cessna 172 with the POTUS on board could use the call sign Air Force One. However, it’s only on rare occasions that the President of the United States doesn’t travel on the modified Boeing 747 conventionally thought to be synonymous with Air Force One. Today, Dec. 26, was one of those rare days.

On Dec. 26, images surfaced of an instantly recognizable Boeing VC-25 (the typical Air Force One aircraft) cruising over the United Kingdom. This caught the attention of aviation geeks and reporters alike for a variety of reasons. One, the President was not scheduled to travel this week. Two, the federal government is shut down and unless VC-25 was being used for official and essential business, the aircraft would not be allowed to fly.

Finally, some were able to track the aircraft, noting that the call sign was RCH358. The President stepped off that aircraft to greet US troops in Iraq, confirming the suspicions of avgeeks and curious Twitter users.

It’s not every day that an aviation geek with a great camera lens is able to uncover the plans of a major world leader to surprise active military stationed abroad. But this isn’t the first time a sitting US President has used an alternate call sign to stay under the radar. Both President Bush and President Obama have used an alternate call sign or had two aircraft use the same call sign so as to not draw attention to their departure. In both cases, the call sign reportedly served two purposes. One, it allowed both leaders to avoid the attention of the media and public eye, thus allowing them to surprise active US troops. Second, if it becomes public knowledge that Air Force One is flying over an active war zone, enemy troops would have an easier (albeit, still nearly impossible) time identifying and attacking the POTUS.

Call signs are not assigned to one specific aircraft; they’re simply a temporary designator allowing air traffic control to identify and communicate with aircraft. A more recent example of a creative call sign is Sheperd One, which was used by an American Airlines Boeing 777-200ER during Pope Francis’ visit to the United States. Even more recently, the crew of a small commuter aircraft in Hawaii took advantage of the aircraft type to create a festive play on words. The Hawaiian commuter flight was operated by a Cessna 208 Caravan. The pilots, flying on Dec. 24, decided to operate the flight as SANTAVAN.

Bottom Line: Technically, yes, the Boeing VC-25 used to transport President Trump from Washington, D.C. to Iraq was still Air Force One due to the President’s presence on board. But even with a different call sign, a very vigilant UK-based plane spotter was able to uncover the sitting US President’s attempt to quietly travel to the Middle East.

...Call signs are not assigned to one specific aircraft; they’re simply a temporary designator allowing air traffic control to identify and communicate with aircraft....

Bullcrap. Only scheduled commercial flights and other special category aircraft (like AF1) have a changeable call sign. All civilian aircraft and most other categories ALWAYS use the aircraft's tail number as a call sign. That's how the FAA knows who to send the ticket to if you commit a violation.

"...the call sign was RCH358....

Well something is awry because a Romeo call sign indicates it's a US Army aircraft. If it were a non-commercial or strictly civilian plane with a US registry, the first character should have been N (November), not R (Romeo). For flight in the country of registration, the use of the country identifier often gets omitted when communicating with ATC but on international flights it is ALWAYS required. So if they were announcing themselves as Romeo Charlie Hotel Three Five Eight, they were proclaiming to the world they were a US army aircraft. Not very inconspicuous, so I doubt the source's credibility. Or the reporter's. Or both.

"...if it becomes public knowledge that Air Force One is flying over an active war zone, enemy troops would have an easier (albeit, still nearly impossible) time identifying and attacking the POTUS...."

Not to burst your bubble but they've still got to guess where he's going to land, because Hadji ain't got nothing that'll shoot him down at at FL400. They get him on approach or not at all. And Al Asad was the safest place he could have visited in Iraq because it's 1) in the middle of nowhere, and 2) Al Asad's cantonement area is in a 'wadi' about 150 feet below the ground level of the surrounding desert floor. So if you're in the desert, what's in the wadi is invisible to you.

Dollars to donuts, that's why they picked it.

Being as its in the middle of a barren desert in the middle of nowhere, you could see somebody sneaking up all the way to the horizon. And anybody out there who appears to be approaching the base gets seriously killed, most ricky-tic.

And all that barren desert surrounding it makes it easy for attack helicopter and UCAV and sniper units to make sure there's no one lurking about who shouldn't be there in advance of the CINC's arrival.

The slant range of an SA-7/16 MANPAD is 16,000 feet. So your local security teams make sure there's nothing 2-legged living in the surrounding desert within a 5 km radius of the compound. And AF1 flies in to the vicinity of Al Asad remaining at or above 16,000 feet above ground level. Then once they're on top of the airfield, they pull off the power, drop the boards and execute an "assault approach," spiraling steeply downward so as never to be further than half a mile or so from the field, as a matter of routine dispensing chaff and flares the entire time. They roll out from the spiral on short final for a steep approach into the field.

All done with next to zero possibility that there could have been anyone within the range of a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile to any point in the approach.

And the airfield is the only (significant) part of Al Asad that's above ground level. Everything else is in the dry stream bed, a hundred or so feet below the level of the desert floor. So AF1 lands, taxis to his convoy, POTUS is hustled into the convoy and in 30 seconds he's below ground level and invisible to anyone in the desert above.

And if push comes to shove, Al Asad is bristling with concrete bunkers a Yugoslav firm built for Saddam in the late 80's. So if it gets dicey, he's got a room covered with 10 meters of reinforced concrete to chill out in.

...Call signs are not assigned to one specific aircraft; they’re simply a temporary designator allowing air traffic control to identify and communicate with aircraft....
Bullcrap. Only scheduled commercial flights and other special category aircraft (like AF1) have a changeable call sign. All civilian aircraft and most other categories ALWAYS use the aircraft’s tail number as a call sign

All military flights use changeable call signs depending upon mission and unit. Military aircraft don’t have N registration numbers and the call sign is up to the aircraft commander. I’ve even changed them mid flight, just tell ATC you want to change your call sign and they’ll do it.

RCH, pronounced “Reach”, is the callsign most military cargo flights use. It’ll even be used by civilian charter aircraft carrying military cargo. You might have an Atlas 747 using the Reach callsign if they’re on a military charter mission. Aircraft using the Reach callsign are heard multiple times a day crossing the Atlantic and heading to the middle east, it wouldn’t raise any suspicion on the radio because it’d sound just like any other C17 or C5 headed to the sandbox. Of course that doesn’t help when you’ve got some aviation nerd with a high powered camera taking pictures.

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