BLUF: 00-9001 took a short trip to Eastern Europe that was almost identical to its previous overseas trip.
While most of the United States was preparing for the long weekend (Memorial Day in the United States was yesterday), a relatively unassuming passenger jet departed from New Jersey. This passenger jet, a modified version of the Boeing 757 known as the C-32B ‘Gatekeeper’ with the registration 00-9001, was headed for a quick “day trip” to Eastern Europe.
Amongst the flurry of trying to figure out when the 9001’s sibling, 02-4452, returned from it’s year long hiatus to Greenville, TX for an upcoming piece. I checked my custom ADSB Exchange URL for the 757-SAVs and noticed that there was some additional movement aside from 4452. Without getting into too much detail, as I plan to cover the others in the near future, I realized that 9001 was on the move and looked to be taking an overseas trip. This is a fairly common undertaking for 9001 but ever since 4452 left for Texas about a year ago 9001 has remained mostly stateside.
What follows is a small report on the trip from the perspective of someone only watching through a computer screen. Due to the nature of the application used to track the aircraft, all dates and times will be in UTC or “Zulu Time”
2023-05-24
Around 2300z, 00-9001 departs from its home, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL), accompanied by a single KC-135 registered 62-3508. The KC-135 is a militarized version of the (very) old Boeing 707 jet. The KC-135 is a militarized derivative of the one-off prototype jet the Boeing 367-80, a common ancestor of the similar and (very) old Boeing 707." These jets have been modified to perform aerial refueling (AR) duties as well as carrying cargo. Now you may be wondering why a military tanker is accompanying a passenger jet. SPOILER ALERT: The reason stems from some of the modifications made to the 757 that turned it into a C-32B. The two relevant mods are the ability to refuel in flight and extra fuel tanks. The C-32Bs are the only 757s in the world with this capability. Even the C-32A, another military variant of the 757 that is used primarily to transport the Vice President, does not have the capability. Thanks to its modifications, the Gatekeepers have a maximum range of almost 7000 miles, while a standard 757 has a range of around 3000-4000 miles depending on the model. With assistance from a tanker like the KC-135, the C-32B’s range is theoretically indefinite.
2023-05-25
9001 continues "across the pond" for an overnight flight. Due to the nature of how flights are tracked we lose track of 9001 once it gets fairly far out over the Atlantic. It reenters coverage just after 0200z, continuing on its journey before "dropping off radar" over Italy. As previously mentioned I have been using a tool called ADSB Exchange to track the movement of 9001 as well as the other 757-SAVs. ADSBx’s data is crowd sourced and unfortunately coverage in Eastern Europe is not the greatest so we need to use another tool to determine the final destination. The tool in question will be Flight Radar 24, specifically their replay function. 9001 drops off at 0730z, if we go to FR24s replay section of the app we can dial in a specific date, time and location we can see that 9001 is visible on FR24 and around 0800z it has descended from it’s cruising altitude of 37,000 feet down to 10,000.
Now, a little bit of inference is needed here to determine which airport. Thankfully back in November 9001 made an almost identical trip to the same area. During that trip it landed at Tirana International Airport. It’s safe to assume that it landed here again.
2023-05-26
9001 reappears off the coast of Italy before heading to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. Since there is no tanker support for the return leg 9001 has to make a stop to refuel. After departing Prestwick 9001 make the journey back across the pond and lands at JB MDL around 2100z.
Conclusion
I have been watching the Gatekeepers (GKs) for sometime now. 00-9001 used to take trips fairly often but since 02-4452 went into maintenance. These trips are usually to drastically different locations so it is interesting to see that during it’s “time off” 9001’s only overseas trips were 7 months apart and to the same airport. Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering, "Okay, cool, a rare version of a plane went to Eastern Europe, what's the big deal? You didn’t even tell us who’s on the plane.” Well, valued reader, you’re right I have purposely left out many details surrounding the GKs for a few reasons:
Details surrounding the GKs is scant at best. A cursory glance of the internet returns many conflicting stories and pieces of information. In fact, it’s widely disputed how many GKs there are. Most sources say there are only 2, but I’m getting ahead of myself
As for who is on board depends on what airframe you’re referring to. But I will discuss that during a more FESTive occasion.
Up next: Sometimes, It’s Good To Be Seen