Minutes after Air Force One departed Joint Base Andrews yesterday afternoon, carrying President Donald J. Trump and his entourage to the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, two Air Force officers aboard, communications and electronic warfare specialists, viewed a suspicious one-word message on their terminals: “Explode.”
Secret Service agents on the flight alerted POTUS and the pilots. At that moment, no one besides them—and the Air Force specialists—suspected that Air Force One, the securest, safest airplane in the world—might have a bomb on board. Security protocols stipulated that the flight be diverted back to Andrews. President Trump, though, didn’t want to panic the passengers, which included dozens of administration officials and members of the mainstream and ‘new media’ press, the latter a group of conservative influencers to whom the president had given White House press credentials. A quick thinker and master strategist, President Trump ordered the pilots to kill the cabin lights and pretend the plane had suffered a minor mechanical/electronics failure as the reason for declaring “Mayday” and returning to Andrews.
Even the president’s closest confidantes, such as Steven Miller and Karoline Leavitt, weren’t told the truth.
As soon as the pilots cut power, emergency lighting activated, and the dim glow of emergency floor path illumination helped passengers navigate to their seats for an emergency landing.
Air Force One landed safely; Secret Service evacuated all passengers before sweeping the plane for explosives. After exhaustively searching the aircraft from nose to tail and finding no bombs, the Secret Service ruled the threat a “false alarm.”
Meanwhile, President Trump and his team boarded a second VC-25 and flew to Davos without incident.
It’s unclear who sent the “Explode” message. Could malign forces have hacked the sytem, or was it warning sent by Washginton, intelligence agencies, or the military?
We will update this story when we receive additional verifiable details.