US Air Force C-17 makes unexplained flight to Moscow

A Boeing C-17 Globemaster III operated by the US Air Force landed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport on 25 August, according to flight-tracking data. No government has said why.

The aircraft, tail number 07-7181, flying under the callsign Reach 4555, had left Charleston, South Carolina, two days earlier. It made a brief stop at Joint Base Andrews, the Washington-area base that hosts presidential and senior government transport aircraft, before continuing to Riga, Latvia. That leg took roughly eight hours and forty minutes.

After a half-hour turnaround in Riga, the C-17 flew on to Vnukovo, a trip of about an hour and fifteen minutes, based on tracking data attributed to FlightRadar24.

Neither the United States nor Russia has issued an official statement confirming the aircraft's mission. Unverified footage circulated online appears to show the C-17 on approach to Vnukovo, passing near a shopping center along the airport's runway 24 approach path. The footage's authenticity has not been independently confirmed, though the location shown was reported to match the described flight path.

The stop at Joint Base Andrews has drawn attention, since that base handles executive transport for US officials. So has the unusual sight of a US military aircraft flying directly into the Russian capital. No further details on passengers, cargo, or the reason for the trip have been made public.