‘We are under attack’: US military aircraft lands in Russia, sparks wild theories

A US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport on Tuesday, triggering speculation over the unexplained purpose of the highly unusual flight at a time when US-Russia contacts over the Ukraine war have lost momentum.The aircraft, operating as RCH4555, flew from Riga, Latvia, to Moscow, according to publicly available Flightradar24 data. It departed Riga at around 8:50am Moscow time and landed at Vnukovo shortly after 10am. Footage of the aircraft’s arrival showed a cameraman apparently joking, “we are under attack!” as the US military plane descended towards the airport.The flight immediately attracted attention because the aircraft’s previous movements showed that it had arrived in Riga on August 23 from Camp Springs, Maryland, where Joint Base Andrews is located. The base is closely associated with US presidential air transport, including Air Force One.