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Ask the Captain: Air traffic control for Air Force One

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Question: When the president is "in transit" by air, who has responsibility for air traffic control of Air Force One? Is it the normal controllers and centers across the country (U.S. or international), or does the Air Force (or equivalent international counterpart) handle ATC? If it's the military, is there any coordination between that branch of the service and their civilian counterparts? (www.usatoday.com) More...

Akaderwood
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dbaker
dbaker 3
The claim about how it's handled differently is false -- in my experience it is on normal, published frequencies.
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HunterTS4
Toby Sharp 2
How often do you get to fly AF1 Mr Baker? ;) jk jk
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dbaker
dbaker 5
I could tell you...but I would have to kill you.
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bentwing60
bentwing60 0
Cool your novice jets Toby, it is totally possible to be discreet in the system and there is really not another one besides UHF/military and we hear a lot of one side of that, if you do it for a living. Heard a dot.com call sign lately?
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HunterTS4
Toby Sharp 2
joking jets......
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notaperfectpilot
notaperfectpilot 1
your right, the frequencies are the same, normal published frequencies. You can pick them up on a normal scanner on published frequencies which I have done before....
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pthomas745
Pa Thomas 1
http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/fac/0501.html

The link goes to the FAA Air Traffic Facilities Operation and Management Order. Chapter 5, Section 1 concerns concerns Presidential special flight handling.

d. To ensure radio communications and radar service, the following should be coordinated with the advance group:

1. All aircraft in the flight should be assigned a discrete transponder code. As a minimum, the lead aircraft and the aircraft containing the President should turn their transponders on when flying in formation. In the event of a formation breakup, all aircraft should squawk their assigned code to facilitate auto-acquire.

2. Normal frequencies are preferred over discrete frequencies.
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bentwing60
bentwing60 1
Thank You!
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