Editing Air Force One (section)

====11 September attacks====
[[File:President George W. Bush aboard Air Force One during the flight from Barksdale Air Force Base to Offut Air Force Base.jpg|thumb|President [[George W. Bush]] aboard a VC-25 on 11 September 2001, the day of the [[September 11 attacks]]]]
On [[September 11 attacks|11 September 2001]], George W. Bush was interrupted as he attended an event at [[Emma E. Booker Elementary School]] in [[Sarasota, Florida]], after [[United Airlines Flight 175|an airplane]] hit the South Tower of the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in New York City. He took off on a VC-25 from [[Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport]] piloted by Colonel Mark Tillman, the senior pilot of Air Force One that day.

Some time later, air traffic controllers warned Tillman that a passenger jet was nearby and not responding to radio calls. Tillman recalls: "As we got over [[Gainesville, Florida]], we got the word from Jacksonville Center. They said, 'Air Force One you have traffic behind you and basically above you that is descending into you, we are not in contact with them – they have shut their responder{{sic}} off.' And at that time it kind of led us to believe maybe someone was coming into us in Sarasota, they saw us take off, they just stayed high and are following us at this point. We had no idea what the capabilities of the terrorists were at that point."<ref name="Tilman" /> Tillman then flew Air Force One over the [[Gulf of Mexico]] in order, he later said, to test whether the other aircraft would follow. The other jet continued on its route, and Tillman said that it was later explained to him that an airliner had lost its [[transponder (aeronautics)|transponder]], which normally broadcasts an electronic identification signal, and that the pilots on board neglected to switch to another radio frequency.

Later, Tillman received a warning of an imminent attack on Air Force One. "We got word from the vice president and the staff that 'Angel was next,' indicating the classified call sign for Air Force One. Once we got into the Gulf [of Mexico] and they passed to us that 'Angel was next,' at that point I asked for fighter support. If an airliner was part of the attack, it would be good to have fighters on the wing to go ahead and take care of us." At this point, Tillman said that the plan to fly the president back to Washington, D.C., was aborted due to concerns that Air Force One would be attacked at [[Andrews Air Force Base]]. Instead, Tillman landed at [[Barksdale Air Force Base]], [[Louisiana]], and [[Offutt Air Force Base]], [[Nebraska]], where the president made a speech.<ref name="Tilman">{{Cite web |date=7 September 2011 |title=Pilot: Air Force One was 'a sitting duck' on tarmac during 9/11 |url=https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/pilot-air-force-one-was-a-sitting-duck-on-tarmac-during-911/news-story/d238338e39b5eafa2fe6549617f12f7b |access-date=15 July 2020 |website=[[The Courier-Mail]]}}</ref> After these stops, the president was returned to Washington, D.C.

The next day, officials at the [[White House]] and the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]] explained that President Bush did this because there was "specific and credible information that the White House and Air Force One were also intended targets".<ref>[https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010912-8.html "Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer"]. ''White House News releases'', September 2001. Retrieved: 18 October 2009.</ref> The White House could not confirm evidence of a threat to Air Force One, and investigation found the original claim to be a result of miscommunication.<ref>{{cite news|last=Allen|first=Mike|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A32319-2001Sep26 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20110224024408/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A32319-2001Sep26 |archive-date=24 February 2011 |title=White House Drops Claim of Threat to Bush|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=27 September 2001|page=A08|accessdate=28 February 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>