Yesteryear
Nov 1996
POTUS visit
The
major activity for November was the U.S Presidential visit to Port Douglas. With
the stopover of President Clinton on the 22nd following his visit to
Canberra, the Presidential circus arrived in FNQ. Earlier in the week prior
there was numerous flights into Cairns of C-141 Starlifters and C-5 Galaxy’s of
AMC plus a Special Air Mission (SAM) VC-137 (27000) bringing in secret service
equipment, secure mobile communication suites, vehicles and a Presidential VH-60N
chopper.
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Both VC-25’s
of SAM were in use (29000 as AF1) and 28000. SAM Gulfstream C-20B (60403) acted
as the ‘hot ship’ used by the Secret Service, plus as an emergency ‘egress’
aircraft for POTUS, it parks remote and remains fully fuelled with APU running
alternating with ground power.
As is
usual a team of Special Operations personnel are in attendance and utilise the CH-53D Stallion helicopter, four
of which were deployed from Hawaii, 157133/02
of HMH-362, 157741/07 (YH) 157742/09 (YH) both of HMH-463 plus 157135/04 (unknown
unit). Interestingly, the VH-60N 163261 ‘Whitehawk’
was re-assembled in the former Ansett hangar at GA where the image was taken,
it is operated by HMX-1 and uses c/s Marine 1 when POTUS is on board.
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| Special Air Mission (SAM) VC-137 (27000) |
The White
House press corps travelled on AF1 while media not sponsored for travel on the
former used a Northwest DC-10-30 (N228NW) for its transport.
A
memorable week at the Cairns Airport.
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| CH-53D Stallion helicopter's |
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| VH-60N 163261 ‘Whitehawk’ |
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