Any chance someone was listening to Live ATC at all to hear him on the radio? This is actually really significant if he is flying domestically and the aircraft is not filed as AF1 or using the callsign on comms.... but I’m not quite ready to make a definitive call on it based on commercial ADS-B out data...
I know. And if they really didn't use the callsign, it still wouldn't conclusively mean anything.... but on a routine CONUS flight like this, it would be really really odd not to use it. I'm an airline pilot now, and I flew in the military for 12 years prior. I've flown cabinet members and worked with the squadron that flies AF1 very closely, as well as Marine 1. And out of all of the crumbs of evidence and puzzle pieces out there, this is a pretty significant one to me.
Any chance someone was listening to Live ATC at all to hear him on the radio? This is actually really significant if he is flying domestically and the aircraft is not filed as AF1 or using the callsign on comms.... but I’m not quite ready to make a definitive call on it based on commercial ADS-B out data...
They do not always file the callsign when the President is on board. You are correct though, that they should identify as "Air Force 1" on comms.
I know. And if they really didn't use the callsign, it still wouldn't conclusively mean anything.... but on a routine CONUS flight like this, it would be really really odd not to use it. I'm an airline pilot now, and I flew in the military for 12 years prior. I've flown cabinet members and worked with the squadron that flies AF1 very closely, as well as Marine 1. And out of all of the crumbs of evidence and puzzle pieces out there, this is a pretty significant one to me.
Yeah, routinely. Unless they had a reason not to. But they published the dang schedule in advance, so it doesn't seem like they would want to hide it.