Trump’s secret flight from Ankara

An assassination threat from Iran against President Donald Trump led, last month, to an extraordinary operation during which Trump secretly left Turkey aboard another military aircraft, whilst the White House claimed he was on Air Force One, the Washington Post has learnt. The covert mission, which had never been made public until now, was carried out without the knowledge of journalists and some White House staff members, who were under the impression they were on the same plane as the president, according to material examined by the Post, a US official with knowledge of the operation and another person briefed on the president’s movements. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter. The administration has maintained that Trump left Turkey on 8 July aboard the old Air Force One. Trump had announced on social media that he would be using the “old Air Force One” instead of the aircraft on which he had arrived – a more modern Boeing 747-8 gifted to the United States by Qatar. The safety of the aircraft provided by Qatar had been called into question, and following the trip, Trump said last month that it would undergo further modernisation work. In Ankara, Trump boarded the old Air Force One in front of the cameras. A few minutes later, he was secretly transferred to a smaller aircraft, an Air Force C-32A, via an airport catering van normally used to load meals and other supplies on board before departure, according to the US official and other material examined by the Post. In this way, the official said, Air Force One served as a “decoy”, carrying journalists and some White House staff on board.

Trump was in Ankara for the NATO summit with world leaders. The operation took place the night after US forces, on Trump’s orders, had resumed military attacks against Iran, following the breakdown of negotiations between Washington and Tehran to end the months-long war. This manoeuvre meant that Trump’s true whereabouts remained hidden from the American public and many senior US officials for hours. Weeks on, it is still unclear to what extent the Administration has disclosed what happened. The Post provided the White House with the details of its investigation, along with a series of questions. In response, White House communications director Steven Cheung issued a statement defending the aircraft gifted by Qatar: “The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft, equipped with the highest level of security protocols to ensure the safety of the President and his staff,” Cheung’s statement read. “As the President recently said, there are many enemies of America who have set their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal to address these threats.” A Pentagon spokesperson referred the questions to the White House. A Secret Service spokesperson did the same, referring the matter to the White House and the Pentagon.

Publicly, the White House has continued to maintain its version of events, according to which the President left Turkey aboard the blue and white Boeing 747 that had served as Air Force One before Trump began using the new 747-8 provided by Qatar. For decades, it has been rare for US presidents to travel without members of the White House press corps in tow, in their role as representatives of the American public. Journalists have travelled to war zones with numerous presidents, including Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush. In the hours immediately following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, officials in the Bush administration did not immediately reveal the president’s whereabouts, merely stating that he had been taken to a ‘secret location’. However, they had not claimed that he was in a location other than his actual whereabouts, and within a few hours, officials had revealed that he had been moved to a military facility in Nebraska. The Trump operation unfolded very differently, highlighting the depth of US security officials’ concerns for his safety as he left Turkey, in the midst of hostilities with Iran. Turkey, a key US ally and a member of the NATO military alliance, shares a border with Iran. A credible Iranian threat against Trump triggered what the US official described as a “deception operation”. The New York Times and CBS News reported last month that the intelligence services had flagged a specific threat of an attack against the president or his aircraft, prompting further precautionary measures. Concerns have existed within US government circles for decades regarding Iranian terrorist plots against American officials, including Trump. These fears have recently intensified due to Washington’s role in the killing of Iranian military and political figures.

The operation and the Iranian threat came just a few days after the president had begun using the state-of-the-art Boeing 747-8, a gift from Qatar, to serve as Air Force One. Trump had flown to Turkey on board that aircraft after the white, red and blue jet had undergone modernisation work costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The aircraft had been handed over to the Air Force in July, but it lacks some of the defensive countermeasures fitted to the old Air Force One. To transport the President out of Turkey, US officials relied in part on a technique that has, on some occasions, become public knowledge. One such mission dates back to March 2000, when President Bill Clinton visited Pakistan. With television cameras rolling in Islamabad, Clinton stepped off a plain white aircraft that was following the blue and white Air Force One, thereby making it clear where he had travelled from. There have been other occasions over the past thirty years when Air Force One has been used as a decoy for the president, either because of a serious threat or because it was flying to a dangerous location, said another US official, who declined to provide further details. The older jet is highly secure, but also extremely conspicuous, and putting the president on another aircraft can therefore be considered safer, the former official said.

Ronald L. Rowe Jr., former acting director of the Secret Service, said that protecting the president is a priority and that details of his movements are kept secret for good reason. “We have to maintain ‘secrecy’ in the Secret Service,” said Rowe, who now works for the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy. “The public should know what the President does every day, but when it comes to the methods by which the Secret Service ensures the President’s safety, these should remain confidential.” When Trump first announced that he would be leaving Turkey aboard the old Air Force One, he presented this decision on social media as an opportunity for US military personnel stationed in Britain to see what had once been the Qatari aircraft. Trump wrote that he would instead be taking ‘the old Air Force One’ from Turkey, ‘for old times’ sake’. But that is not how it turned out, according to material examined by the Post and the US official. Numerous people were drawn into the deception, some unwittingly, and journalists who were led to believe they were travelling with the president on board the old Air Force One were neither informed of the change of aircraft nor made aware of the scale of the threat to Air Force One, the US official said. The new Air Force One, a gift from Qatar, departed Turkey first, in the evening of 8 July. Trump then boarded the old blue and white Air Force One at sunset, waving to the cameras.

To leave the aircraft without being seen by people not involved in the operation, Trump and some aides boarded an airport catering van, which was raised alongside the aircraft using a hydraulic system and positioned in front of a door on the opposite side to the Air Force One entrance, according to the US official and other material confirming this account. Images captured by the media at the Turkish airport show a boarding ladder on one side of the old Air Force One and the catering van on the other, with its container raised to the height of the aircraft. Trump arrived in a limousine, climbed the boarding ladder and waved to the tarmac as he boarded, as shown in the images. A few minutes later, whilst members of the White House press corps were boarding at the rear of the aircraft, a man in a suit entered the cab of the catering van, according to media pool footage of the departure procedures. The container was lowered onto the vehicle’s flatbed, after which the van drove away from Air Force One and made its way to the nearby C-32A, as the video appears to show. The van disappeared from view for around 40 seconds, whilst the camera panned and its view was briefly obscured by the C-32A’s engines. The video shows that the container was raised to the level of the aircraft for several minutes. After the container was lowered, a person in a suit emerged from the cab of the lorry – which remained at ground level – and climbed the ladder leading to the C-32A, disappearing from the camera’s view. The blue and white C-32A, a modified Boeing 757 used to transport US government officials, had been brought to Turkey alongside the old Air Force One and the former Qatari jet to support the President’s visit, the US official said. Like the Air Force One jumbo jets, it bears the inscription ‘United States of America’ and can be used to transport the President or Vice-President. As a rule, however, it flies under the call sign “Air Force One” or “Air Force Two”, not under an anonymous call sign. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded the C-32A separately, using an external ladder, in an attempt to make the flight appear to be a routine departure, according to the US official and other material reviewed by the Post. Hegseth travelled with Trump to Britain on the same aircraft, this person said. As journalists boarded the old Air Force One, White House staff ordered them to lower the window blinds, according to a report by the media pool.

The New York Times reported last month that the former Qatari jet lacks the defensive capabilities of the older aircraft used for US presidential transport. That article prompted the Trump Administration to take the unusual step of issuing subpoenas to several journalists in an attempt to uncover the identities of their confidential sources. Administration officials described the legal action against The New York Times as necessary to investigate a breach of national security, whilst the Times characterised the move as an attempt to avoid transparency, intimidate journalists and scare their sources. The Administration subsequently withdrew the subpoenas, acknowledging that it had made mistakes in the matter. In rejecting criticism of the new jet, the White House also released a statement from the Air Force. “The aircraft is safe, secure and equipped with the most advanced technologies necessary to meet the requirements of the presidential mission,” the statement read. “These requirements were carefully drawn up to prioritise the mission over aesthetics, leaving much of the head of state’s previous interior configuration largely unchanged.” “No risks were taken in terms of security, safety or operational communications, but the team as a whole made choices regarding some of the less frequently used capabilities that Boeing will need to provide to support the next forty years of missions,” the statement reads.

Although the jumbo jets carrying the President are commonly referred to as ‘Air Force One’, the term is technically the radio call sign used for any aircraft on which the President is travelling. In this instance, however, the President’s presence on board the C-32A bound for Britain was concealed using the anonymous call sign “Reach 18”, or “RCH18”, according to a person with knowledge of the mission and other material examined by the Post. The aviation account “Thenewarea51” reported the arrival of the C-32A in Britain and its call sign, noting that evening that the systems enabling the aircraft to be easily tracked during flight had been deactivated. “Reach” call signs are often used for personnel transport flights and those carrying military equipment, according to people familiar with the mission.

Publicly available flight tracking data shows that the Qatari jet flew to Mildenhall Air Base in Britain under the call sign ‘SAM 33’, an abbreviation commonly used for ‘special air mission’. The data shows that the aircraft landed at Mildenhall at 18:26 local time on 8 July. The former Air Force One, carrying White House staff and journalists, appeared on radar near Istanbul whilst en route to Britain, initially without a call sign. Although the President was not on board, it subsequently assumed the Air Force One call sign, “AF1”, during the flight and arrived at Mildenhall at around 10.29 pm local time, according to tracking data. A report by the media pool that evening described the flight as “uneventful”, with “no visitors in the press cabin”. It was not possible to find tracking data for the C-32A, but videos posted on the YouTube channels RankUpAviation and Military Aviation Channel show the Qatari jet landing, followed a few hours later by a C-32A at around 22:20, and by the old Air Force One a few minutes after that.

The videos show that, after landing, the old Air Force One came to a halt at the spot where the C-32A had been briefly parked. The amateur videos posted on YouTube do not show Trump getting off the C-32A or boarding the old Air Force One, because the boarding stairs were facing away from the aviation enthusiasts’ cameras. It is unclear how Trump moved from the C-32A to the old Air Force One after landing, but he appeared in front of the television cameras and descended the external steps of the old Air Force One at around 22:56, according to a report by the media pool. After greeting US military personnel, the president boarded the new Air Force One – the one he had just been gifted – to return to Washington, accompanied by staff and journalists, following the transfer from the old Air Force One at around 23:01. That evening, the White House posted a message on social media stating that Trump had landed at the British base “aboard the old Air Force One”, accompanying the post with a photograph of the old aircraft.

On board the new Air Force One, Trump spoke to journalists for around 15 minutes, emphasising the threat posed by Iran but without acknowledging the ploy that had been staged shortly beforehand. When asked why journalists had been ordered to draw the window blinds on the plane in Turkey, Trump replied that it was “because you’re probably on a dangerous flight, due to the ragamuffins we have to deal with”. Trump said he was “always” under threat of attacks and was “number one” on Iran’s “list”. “But if I go, you go too. Right?”, Trump told the journalists. “Maybe one day you’ll want to change careers.”