By Owen Hughes
Copyright dailypost
“Love him or hate him” the 47th US president Donald Trump flew over Welsh airspace last night on his way to the state visit in the UK. The president and his entourage flew from Washington DC to London Stansted Airport yesterday.
While Air Force One doesn’t appear on most flight tracking sites, like Flightradar24, it is sometimes picked up on the volunteer run globe.adsbexchange.com.
His plane and entourage were seen by a couple of sharp eyed people in North Wales on the flight website shortly after 8pm on Tuesday evening before he landed at Stansted at around 9pm.
The visit comes at a time of huge tension following the assassination of right wing political activist Charlie Kirk in Utah amid growing political violence in the US. This also followed the killing of Democrat state representative Melissa Hortman in June in what is being treated as a “politically motivated assassination”.
Trump himself was the victim of an assassination attempt in the last presidential election campaign while one person was shot dead and 140 police officers injured when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol after he lost the 2020 presidential election.
This has led to an unprecedented security operation in and around London during his state visit – with the president to meet King Charles today.
He did though pass peacefully over North Wales – with his plane cutting across the Llyn Peninsula before heading over Harlech and into Eryri National Park.
Richard Workman, from Shell Island campsite near Harlech, said: “Love him or hate him, Air Force One with the President of United States of America, just flew over us!
“Looks like he’s a Back of Beyond person!”
In response one person said: “That’s one way to avoid the traffic in the village I guess” presumably referring to traffic hit Llanbedr.
Another added: “I’m surprised he needed a plane as he thinks he’s superman!” and one said “So that’s why the dogs were barking”.
One person said: “Explains why there were lots of fighter jets about today I guess” while others had noticed Apache helicopters in the region on Tuesday.
The majority of responses were less complimentary about the divisive 47th president.
Others questioned whether Air Force One would show up on a site like this.
But in response, one person said: “Now and again AF1 appears on a website called adsb-exchange which is slightly harder to use but better for military aircraft which is how I got this, it is every other flight as this is only the second time ever in two years I’ve saw it on radar.”
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