Trump's Trip To Iraq No Secret On Twitter

Air Force One spotted flying over Leeds, England

President Donald Trump's unannounced visit to Iraq was no surprise to airplane buffs, reports NBC News.

NY Post Front Page Thursday 12/27/18

While the trip was shrouded in secrecy for security reasons, an airplane aficionado spotted the distinctive blue and white Boeing jet flying over England, and posted pictures of it on his Flickr account Wednesday morning.

When the president is on board, the VC-25A plane — a military version of the 747 — uses the call sign Air Force One. The plane spotted over England, however, was using the call sign RCH358.

Online detectives figured out the plane's disguised call numbers, and tracked its movements — even sharing them on Twitter.

WikiLeaks then got in on the act, tweeting out a map of the route the plane was taking. "The Boeing 747 usually used by Trump for Air Force One is currently moving towards Turkey," one of the tweets said.

That led to speculation online that Trump was going to visit troops in Afghanistan, or to pay his respects to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who reportedly recently told the president that Turkey would take responsibility for finishing off the Islamic State if the U.S. pulled out of Syria.

Is Trump on a surprise visit to Afghanistan? Turkey? Flight trackers show that one of two planes used for Air Force One (92-9000/VC-25) using what appears to be a fake HEXCODE of AE47C4, departed Andrews Air Force base at midnight. Transponders changed or disabled near Romania. pic.twitter.com/JtVzEPUoLv

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 26, 2018

WikiLeaks then tweeted that the plane's transponders — the device used to to track plane flights — were either changed or disabled near Romania.

The online tracking appeared to thwart, to an unusual degree, the security protocols that often have kept the plane's movements obscured on visits to war zones in the past.

Trump and Melania were spirited out of the White House late last night to board Air Force One, which flew 11 hours to Iraq. The plane's shades were drawn and lights out much of the trip for security. https://t.co/wpiJ4Z87Qg

— Steve Holland (@steveholland1) December 26, 2018

The plane's shades were drawn and lights were out for much of the 11-hour trip for security reasons, according to a Reuters reporter who was on the flight. Trump, meanwhile, stayed off Twitter for the duration of the flight — which to many on social media was also a tell that something was up, given his prolific tweeting in recent days.

"Trump spent a little more than three hours in Iraq," Reuters' Steve Holland reports. "On his way home, he stopped for about an hour and a half at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he shook hands and posed for pictures with some of the hundreds of troops lined up inside a hangar. "

Air Force One landed at Andrews at 5:13 a.m. Thursday.