Why is a Cessna C560 circling Washington DC during the protests?

Question

Right now according to FlightRadar24 there is a Cessna C560 circling Washington DC.

It took off from Manassas Regional Airport and has been circling ever since. No other identification is listed.

Is there any other way to find out what this plane is doing and why it would be flying now?

from a journalist: https://twitter.com/josephfcox/status/1267661141519433728 I don't think any strict confirmation can be found, but such flights have been performed on most major cities these days. these aircraft are usually equipped with stingrays/IMSI catcher and similar communication surveillance equipment. — Federico, Jun 02 '20 at 05:52
FYI I opened a meta discussion about this question: https://aviation.meta.stackexchange.com/q/4105/1467 as much the subject interests me and I have followed it in my spare time, I question whether it can be considered on-topic here. — Federico, Jun 02 '20 at 09:22
It's possible global.adsbexchange.com might show more info for such a flight. — Jeff B, Jun 03 '20 at 02:34
There are also Predator drones circling Minneapolis, although this one flew hexagonally, to be exact. — knallfrosch, Jun 03 '20 at 09:15
@Brad you must not have been drilled in two-minute turns. :-) — Raydot, Jun 04 '20 at 17:17

score 53 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 02 '20 at 07:01

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According to the Washington Post, an unidentified C560 was also seen circling protests in Baltimore in 2015. The FBI stated the aircraft were theirs and "specifically used to assist in providing high-altitude observation of potential criminal activity to enable rapid response by police officers on the ground."

FlightAware shows the callsign of the flight over DC tonight as JENA120, consistent with the callsigns used by FBI flights during the Baltimore flights.

answered Jun 02 '20 at 07:01

bcattle

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The FBI isn't going to admit "We use them in order to track everyone's phone in the city, and gather all of their calls, text messages, and network connections without a warrant". – john doe Jun 02 '20 at 14:37
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Baltimore/DC is the test area for a Wide Area Surveillance system similar to the military's "Gorgon Stare" project. The camera unit is built by a company called "Persistent Surveillance Systems". It records everything on the ground around the aircraft at a very high resolution using multiple cameras. Analysts can go back and zoom in on anything in the search area at a later date and track and follow individuals and their vehicles. – mfarver Jun 02 '20 at 15:34
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Bloomberg had an article about such a system on board a Cessna flying over Baltimore in 2016, by a company called Persistent Surveillance Systems. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Jun 02 '20 at 16:05
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@johndoe Don't think you'd need something as obvious as a plane circling overhead to do that. They'd get the same info from the cell towers anyhow. The plane is more likely there because they want visual info. – Darrel Hoffman Jun 02 '20 at 16:25
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@Darrel: you missed the part in john's comment about "without a warrant". Law enforcement likes Stingray and similar devices because it allows them to bypass that pesky issue of having to convince cellular phone companies to hand over the info they want. Instead, they just pretend to be the cellular network and get the info directly. There is some debate as to whether a warrant is required when using a Stingray, but for now the feds say they don't need one, and only in a few states has any law been passed making the requirement of a warrant explicit. – Peter Duniho Jun 02 '20 at 16:57
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@johndoe a jet flying at nearly 17,000 feet is not going to be doing any cell phone or text message tracking. – SnakeDoc Jun 02 '20 at 17:15
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@johndoe they don't need a circling plane for that. – Aganju Jun 02 '20 at 18:13
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@johndoe An IMSI catcher is much more likely to be useful deployed near the surface than at 17,000 ft. And especially in Washington, D.C. of all places, it would be pretty trivial for the government to install as many of them as they want around the city out of view rather than flying them around on a jet. – reirab Jun 02 '20 at 20:55
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I expect it provides communication surport to the people they have on the ground and tracks how many mobiles are in each area so the know where groups are forming. – Ian Ringrose Jun 03 '20 at 09:51
@SnakeDoc can you please explain why that is the case, possibly in an answer? – Bjonnfesk Jun 04 '20 at 09:33
@Bjonnfesk No, because it's not aviation related. Cell Towers are directional, designed to spread the signal outwards, not upwards. 17,000 feet is 3.2 miles into the air, well above any cell tower. Not only that, a Jet has to fly relatively quickly to not stall, which means the cell connections would have to swap towers constantly, which would not allow for a good "interception and tracking" environment. So, basically, it can't happen from a Jet. – SnakeDoc Jun 04 '20 at 16:59
@SnakeDoc You make good points. However, I must counter that there are devices like the Honeywell Forge Router (https://aerospace.honeywell.com/en/learn/products/satellite-communications/router) which connect to the 4G network, ostensibly "ideal for buisness jets" - is it conceivable that they could be able to monitor LTE traffic, if not GSM or GPRS? Perhaps in a manner not intended to monitor individual traffic, but rather the general trend, to establish the general mood of the protesters and attempt to predict where violence might occur? If so, cell phone tower swapping is not a problem. – Bjonnfesk Jun 18 '20 at 22:04
@Bjonnfesk That particular device is for providing network connectivity within the airplane. The airplane must have a ground station (with tracking) or a satellite connection for this data, ie. it does not come from normal cell towers as the plane flies. Here's a decent partial explanation of why cell connections won't work in a jet flying at 17,000 feet and at couple hundred mph: https://www.cnn.com/2014/04/14/tech/mobile/phones-in-flight/index.html – SnakeDoc Jun 18 '20 at 22:14
@SnakeDoc Pardon, that was not quite the correct product. https://www.reuters.com/article/att-inflight/att-honeywell-to-launch-4g-in-flight-broadband-system-idUSWNBB047WB20140428 | Page 3, under "Wired Data", it claims to be GSM and LTE compatible, and have dual-sim capability. https://aerospace.honeywell.com/content/dam/aero/en-us/documents/learn/services/flight-services/brochures/C61-1832-000-000_GoDirect_Aircraft_Data_Gateway-bro.pdf "Client antenna connects to Wi-Fi or cellular based on selection" (emphasis added) – Bjonnfesk Jun 18 '20 at 22:23
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@Bjonnfesk some "base stations" are cell towers with their directional antennas pointed towards the sky. A lot of domestic flights with in-flight entertainment use this option since it's a lot cheaper and faster vs. satellite. However, these aren't normal cell towers and cell phones can't connect to them directly. To snoop calls and data, you have to MiTM the cell tower and your device, so cell phones connect through your snooping device. You read the data, and forward to the actual cell tower and the user can't tell the difference. Not easy, and you'd have to be really close to the user. – SnakeDoc Jun 18 '20 at 22:53
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@Bjonnfesk continued... Your phone looks for the closest, strongest cell tower signal that's compatible, and connects. StingRay and other similar devices pretend to be a cell tower, and via proximity appear to be the strongest, closest signal to your phone. Your phone connects, and then the StingRay operator can see all your data and listen to your calls while forwarding them to the actual tower. In the OP's case, this jet is 99% likely providing visual surveillance with cameras and the good old Mk.I Eye Ball. ;) – SnakeDoc Jun 18 '20 at 22:55
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Eloquently said. I concede :P. Thank you for clarifying. It happens too often that people simply assert things without providing any reasoning behind their assertions; I'm glad to see that you have knowledge to back up your position. – Bjonnfesk Jun 18 '20 at 23:07

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 07 '20 at 16:49

That plane was N557PG, a Cessna Citation V which is, according to the FAA, registered to National Aircraft Leasing Corp. That company is probably a front company for the FBI. Here's the track that N557PG flew on June 2, 2020. Compare to the image in your question:

Here's a link to see that track yourself. Note that it is probably only good until July 2, 2020 (about 30 days after June 2): https://tar1090.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a71ab8&lat=38.785&lon=-77.308&zoom=10.2&showTrace=2020-06-02

All the commercial trackers, like Flightradar 24, will hide aircraft identification info if requested (and paid) to. ADS-B Exchange is probably the first place anyone should check if they want to know what's flying around, because it has good coverage (maybe not as good as the commercial trackers) and never censors any information. Use https://tar1090.adsbexchange.com/.

After the 2015 Baltimore protests over the suspicious death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, it was found that the FBI had been flying more than a hundred aircraft over U.S. cities as part of a secret aerial surveillance program, where those aircraft were registered to front companies to hide their relationship to the FBI ("FBI behind mysterious surveillance aircraft over US cities" by Associated Press). National Aircraft Leasing Corp. was one of those front companies. You can see from the FAA registration database that there are 7 other companies, all fronts, with aircraft registered to the same address:

We know the flights are at least collecting video (including thermal/IR) surveillance because the FBI released some of it:

(FBI archive link: https://vault.fbi.gov/protests-in-baltimore-maryland-2015/unedited-versions-of-video-surveillance-footage/1D3001Part1). We know they have the equipment to do other sorts of surveillance too.

Why is a Cessna C560 circling Washington DC during the protests?

2 Answers2

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