The aircraft at the Bangor International Airport.
Bangor residents who looked up Tuesday afternoon may have seen the President of the United States’ famed white and blue jetliner.
Called Air Force One when the president is onboard, one of the two specially configured Boeing 747s, which dons “United States of America” on its side, landed at Bangor International Airport at around 4 p.m., according to several people who saw it land. It then stood idly on the airport’s tarmac for at least a couple hours while crew and refueling trucks hovered around it.
At the scene, the BDN found no evidence that Donald Trump was onboard and the plane had landed at the Pease Air National Guard Base in Portsmouth, NH earlier in the day without the president. Risteen Bahr, BIA’s marketing manager, did not immediately return calls for comment.
The presence of the president’s plane is not an unusual sight in Bangor. In 2012, the white and blue 757 that typically carries the vice president and other U.S. dignitaries performed touch-and-go landings at BIA. Bahr said at the time the airport is a frequent stop for military jets due to its 11,440-foot runway, proximity to the Maine Air National Guard Base, and quiet air pattern.
Last September, Air Force One, carrying then-President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and then-Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to land at BIA on a refueling stop but that landing was evidently called off.
The plane that landed on Tuesday had the number 29000 on its tail, marking it as one of the president’s two aircraft.
It transported former President George W. Bush immediately following the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center South Tower in New York, according to the Air Force.
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