President’s plane in town for checkup
Air Force One jet staying two days at Fairchild
If you saw Air Force One flying low over the West Plains on Thursday, you weren’t hallucinating.
One of two Air Force One planes used by the president landed at Fairchild Air Force Base on Thursday afternoon.
It was scheduled to remain at the base for two days for an operations maintenance check after undergoing depot maintenance elsewhere, said Lt. Casey Osborne, of Fairchild’s public affairs office. Osborne said the check is like taking your car out for a spin after a tuneup, to see if everything’s running properly.
The plane, an Air Force version of a Boeing 747-200, will be landing and taking off from Fairchild through Saturday.
President Barack Obama is not on the plane, so technically it’s not Air Force One. The plane only carries that designation when the president is on it.
Osborne said the plane’s stop at Fairchild has nothing to do with Obama’s trip to Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park today and Saturday.