Editing Air Force One (section)

===21st century===
[[File:Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore.jpg|thumb|''[[SAM 28000]]'' flying over [[Mount Rushmore]] in February 2001]]
[[File:Barack Obama meets his staff in Air Force One Conference Room.jpg|thumb|President [[Barack Obama]] meets with staff mid-flight aboard Air Force One, in the [[conference room]] on 3 April 2009]]

When President [[George W. Bush]] left office in January 2009, he flew to Texas in a VC-25 that used call sign SAM 28000, as it did not carry the current president of the United States. Similar arrangements were made for former presidents [[Ronald Reagan]], [[Bill Clinton]], and [[Barack Obama]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}} President [[Donald Trump]] flew to his Mar-a-Lago estate aboard Air Force One on the final day of his first presidency in January 2021.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jackson |first=David |title=Donald Trump spends final minutes in office at Mar-a-Lago, is first president to skip inauguration in more than 150 years |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/20/donald-trump-plans-end-his-presidency-mar-lago-florida/4210601001/ |access-date=29 March 2021 |website=[[USA Today]]|date=January 20, 2021}}</ref>

After the deaths of former Presidents [[Gerald Ford]] and Ronald Reagan, VC-25 aircraft flew their remains to their home states of [[Michigan]] and California, respectively.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

On 27 April 2009, a low-flying VC-25 circled New York City for a [[photo-op]] and [[military exercise|training exercise]], alarming many New Yorkers.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rao|first=Mythili|first2=Ed|last2=Henry|url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/28/low.flying.plane/index.html|title=Furious' Obama orders review of NY plane flyover|work=CNN|date=28 April 2009|accessdate=18 October 2009|authorlink2=Ed Henry}}</ref>

During Joe Biden's [[2023 visit by Joe Biden to Ukraine|2023 visit to Ukraine]], the Air Force One call sign was not used for the C-32 aircraft he flew to [[Poland]]; to increase secrecy, the call sign was ''SAM060''.<ref>Evan Vucci, John Leicester and Zeke Miller [https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-biden-kyiv-politics-74c9de636c489393c86ad115e5cbcb48 "How do you sneak a US president into a warzone without anyone noticing?"] AP News, 21 February 2023</ref>

====Logistical support====
[[File:Presidential limousine loaded in aircraft.jpg|thumb|The presidential limousine being sent via Boeing C-17 prior to the arrival of ''Air Force One''.]]

When flying with the President, Air Force One rarely flies alone. It is often accompanied by a fleet of aircraft that can include the back-up VC-25, cargo aircraft, and tankers.<ref name="Hardesty 2003 pages=156–157">{{harvnb|Hardesty|2003|pages=156–157.}}</ref> In such cases, up to half a dozen cargo aircraft, such as the [[Boeing C-17 Globemaster III]] or the [[Lockheed C-5 Galaxy]], precede AF1 by a couple days or more, bringing the [[Presidential state car (United States)|presidential limousine]] and [[Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk|Sikorsky VH-60 Black Hawk]] helicopters, along with Secret Service personnel and several hundred maintenance crew. Longer trips are accompanied by tankers, such as the [[McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender]], to limit the need to stop for fuel and ensure that AF1 does not take fuel from an unvetted source.<ref name="Hardesty 2003 pages=156–157"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Tyler |first1=Rogoway |date=2 July 2020 |title=The Fascinating Anatomy of the Presidential Motorcade |url=https://www.twz.com/4518/the-fascinating-anatomy-of-the-presidential-motorcade |work=The War Zone}}</ref>

The support aircraft will often use several airports in a region to minimize the impact to one particular airport, and Secret Service may also preposition a Gulfstream [[C-37B]] or [[Boeing E-4]] in a neighboring region for backup.<ref name="Fleet">{{cite news |last1=Weisgerber |first1=Marcus |title=The secret history of the Air Force One shadow fleet |url=https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2024/01/secret-history-air-force-one-shadow-fleet/393372/ |work=Defense One |date=17 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Graff|first1=Garrett |title=The President's Secret Air Force |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/02/the-presidents-secret-air-force-215091/ |work=Politico |date=2 May 2017}}</ref>

In addition to the President, staff, and flight crew, a VC-25A can carry 102 guests in typical domestic business-class [[Airline seat|seats]]. The back-up VC-25 typically flies with 14 crew, two pilots, six flight crew, two cooks, and four flight attendants. When transporting the President, the primary VC-25A has three cooks and 15 flight attendants, 20 or more Secret Service agents, and some 40 members of the presidential [[press pool]]. During international state visits, another aircraft may be chartered to accommodate another 150 or more journalists and security personnel.<ref name="Hardesty 2003 pages=156–157"/>

====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>