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Harper - Reinstate Monica
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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You were on a military (or State Dept.) flight.

This would have been a lot more obvious if the airframe had been haze grey and an Antonov-124 and had military logos on it.

But the fact is, a lot of military flights fly with leased civilian equipment. Usually this is third-ratetier civilian fleets like cargo planes (e.g. Kalitta Air), but in the current regime, several things are true:

  • First-rate commercial airlines are happy to take any business they can get.
  • Governments would much rather hire them than subsidize them, because subsidies are political third rails, and big treaty issues.
  • Logistics people are happy to have an actual passenger airplane instead of having to improvise with a cargo plane.

I drive by a USAF logistics base from time to time, and there are constantly large airliners of a variety of marques and nationalities in there, or just unmarked white-tails. They are deploying or returning troops. The US uses this same infrastructure to repatriate citizens for COVID-19, and brings them into those same logistics bases.

Mind you, the flight was probably arranged by your State Department aka Foreign Office, i.e. the diplomatic corps who run embassies, haggle out treaties, help developing nations, issue visas, etc. Same deal; they're contracting out to get an aircraft (probably "wet" i.e. supplied with airline crew and support). If anybody can talk a foreign nation into lending use of a military base, it'd be your country's State Dept.

You were on a military (or State Dept.) flight.

This would have been a lot more obvious if the airframe had been haze grey and an Antonov-124 and had military logos on it.

But the fact is, a lot of military flights fly with leased civilian equipment. Usually this is third-rate civilian fleets like cargo planes (e.g. Kalitta Air), but in the current regime, several things are true:

  • First-rate commercial airlines are happy to take any business they can get.
  • Governments would much rather hire them than subsidize them, because subsidies are political third rails, and big treaty issues.
  • Logistics people are happy to have an actual passenger airplane instead of having to improvise with a cargo plane.

I drive by a USAF logistics base from time to time, and there are constantly large airliners of a variety of marques and nationalities in there, or just unmarked white-tails. They are deploying or returning troops. The US uses this same infrastructure to repatriate citizens for COVID-19, and brings them into those same logistics bases.

Mind you, the flight was probably arranged by your State Department aka Foreign Office, i.e. the diplomatic corps who run embassies, haggle out treaties, help developing nations, issue visas, etc. Same deal; they're contracting out to get an aircraft (probably "wet" i.e. supplied with airline crew and support). If anybody can talk a foreign nation into lending use of a military base, it'd be your country's State Dept.

You were on a military (or State Dept.) flight.

This would have been a lot more obvious if the airframe had been haze grey and an Antonov-124 and had military logos on it.

But the fact is, a lot of military flights fly with leased civilian equipment. Usually this is third-tier civilian fleets like cargo planes (e.g. Kalitta Air), but in the current regime, several things are true:

  • First-rate commercial airlines are happy to take any business they can get.
  • Governments would much rather hire them than subsidize them, because subsidies are political third rails, and big treaty issues.
  • Logistics people are happy to have an actual passenger airplane instead of having to improvise with a cargo plane.

I drive by a USAF logistics base from time to time, and there are constantly large airliners of a variety of marques and nationalities in there, or just unmarked white-tails. They are deploying or returning troops. The US uses this same infrastructure to repatriate citizens for COVID-19, and brings them into those same logistics bases.

Mind you, the flight was probably arranged by your State Department aka Foreign Office, i.e. the diplomatic corps who run embassies, haggle out treaties, help developing nations, issue visas, etc. Same deal; they're contracting out to get an aircraft (probably "wet" i.e. supplied with airline crew and support). If anybody can talk a foreign nation into lending use of a military base, it'd be your country's State Dept.

Source Link
Harper - Reinstate Monica
Harper - Reinstate Monica
  • 35.8k
  • 4
  • 65
  • 144

You were on a military (or State Dept.) flight.

This would have been a lot more obvious if the airframe had been haze grey and an Antonov-124 and had military logos on it.

But the fact is, a lot of military flights fly with leased civilian equipment. Usually this is third-rate civilian fleets like cargo planes (e.g. Kalitta Air), but in the current regime, several things are true:

  • First-rate commercial airlines are happy to take any business they can get.
  • Governments would much rather hire them than subsidize them, because subsidies are political third rails, and big treaty issues.
  • Logistics people are happy to have an actual passenger airplane instead of having to improvise with a cargo plane.

I drive by a USAF logistics base from time to time, and there are constantly large airliners of a variety of marques and nationalities in there, or just unmarked white-tails. They are deploying or returning troops. The US uses this same infrastructure to repatriate citizens for COVID-19, and brings them into those same logistics bases.

Mind you, the flight was probably arranged by your State Department aka Foreign Office, i.e. the diplomatic corps who run embassies, haggle out treaties, help developing nations, issue visas, etc. Same deal; they're contracting out to get an aircraft (probably "wet" i.e. supplied with airline crew and support). If anybody can talk a foreign nation into lending use of a military base, it'd be your country's State Dept.