Photo taken at Shannon in 2020

Omni Air plane number N234AX, flight number CMB501 on contract to the US military, travelled a very unusual flight sequence on Sunday May 9th. It took off from Hill Air base which is a major US Air Force base in Ogden, Utah and flew directly to Shannon Airport. It then went on to Charles de Gaul CDG, Paris, then to Mont-de-Marsan Airbase, also in France.

Mont-de-Marsan is a secretive test facility for French cutting edge aircraft and related weapons systems. Wikipedia describes it as home to two squadrons of Dassault Rafale, the most advanced French fighter aircraft. The base includes Centre d'Essais des Matériels Aéronautiques - CEMA (the French air force military experimentation and trials organisation), an air defense radar command reporting centre, and an air defence control training site.

From there, N234AX headed north and then took an unusual turn rather than land at Charles de Gaulle, heading as if towards Ramstein. It made another turn heading south east again.

The US military base at Shannon in "neutral" Ireland has been quite busy at the start of May. In the first six days of the month there were nine troop flights, all identifiable from their US Transportation Command "Camber" (CMB) call sign, at least three US Air Force landings, and stopovers by the Canadian Air Force. All in six days. 

That's six days at a time when the Irish government is still advising against all non-essential international travel. Travel restrictions are in place to protect public health and to mitigate the risk of new variants of COVID-19 entering the country, they say. The Department of Justice has temporarily ceased accepting new visa/pre-clearance applications globally (with limited exemptions).  And yet the US military is allowed to travel through Shannon every day.

We interested in finding out about a US Air Force Gulfstream Aerospace C-37B that landed at Shannon last Tuesday (13th April), stayed overnight, and left the following day.

Its flight history shows that it came from Dubai, and had a Special Air Mission [SAM] call sign. That means that it was probably carrying high ranking government or Department of Defense officials. What is also of note is that before Dubai it was recorded flying over Pakistan. No record of where it landed, but it was in the Pakistan/Afghanistan region.

Saturday night/Sunday morning last saw four warplanes refuelling at Shannon. 

Omni Air troop carrier N486AX landed at 10pm on Saturday night having been in the Middle East and at several European air bases. It took off again at 5.46am on Sunday, heading for Fort Campbell KY .

Omni Air N207AX arricved from Norfork VA in the US at 2.46am (Sunday) and took off heading towards the Middle East at 7.16am.

Omni Air N351AX landed at 8.37am coming from Riyadh in Saudia Arabia.

Sometimes we get information about US military planes landing at Shannon that look a little bit more than refuelling stops. Yesterday was one of those times.

On Monday night (5th) N207AX, an Omni Air Boeing 767 troop carrier arrived from Biggs Air Base in El Paso Texas, landing at Shannon at 23.53. It had been scheduled to leave El Paso on Sunday morning, but it left on Monday morning instead. 

Another unusual thing about it was that it did not go the normal route. It went up over Greenland and down the West Coast of Ireland. All the way from El Paso, Texas.

We're still keeping track of the ongoing US troop movements through Shannon.

In the past 24 hours there have been at least five troop carriers at the airport. Four planes have passed through Shannon on their way to and from the Middle East, with destinations that included Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Al Udeid air base in Qatar and Kuwait.

On Saturday April 3rd Omni N819AX arrived at Shannon from Biggs air base Texas and then flew on to Al Udeid air base in Qatar and to Kuwait.

Last Monday (March 8th) The Examiner reported that there have been nine instances of US troops stopping overnight at Shannon Airport with around one military flight per day landing this year. The newspaper reported that in response to a question from Paul Murphy TD, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney confirmed that between 1 January and 17 February 2021, diplomatic clearance was provided for landings of 44 foreign military aircraft in Ireland.

As reported in the Irish Times of Feb 27th, two more serious breaches of Covid 19 regulations by the US military have been discovered at Shannon. These are in addition to the three breaches we already reported.

In response to a Dail question by SInn Fein spokesperson John Brady TD, Foreign Affairs and Defence Minister Simon Coveney was forced to admit that a further 113 US soldiers were in breach of Covid 19 regulations at Shannon Airport during January this year.

By our calculations this brings to at least 413 the total number of US military personnel who were in breach of these regulations since January 1st.

The following letter was written to the National Clinical Director for Health Protection and the Department of Public Health in Limerick on February 9th, by a member of Shannonwatch. An acknowledgement was received, but otherwise there has been no reply to the issues raised.

I am contacting you to request your prompt intervention as Medical Officer of Health with regard to the life-threatening risk of infection posed to the population of the Mid-West and the whole population of Ireland by air travellers entering Ireland via Shannon Airport from the United States and the Middle East, where there is a high incidence of Covid-19.

Earlier this week we wrote about a US Air Force, Special Operations Command Dornier C-146A 'Wolfhound' aircraft registration 97-3093 that arrived in Shannon on 8th February from the USA, spent over 17 hours at the airport, and took off on the morning of 9th February.

Catherine Connolly TD asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs about the circumstances concerning the aircraft, the number of passengers and crew members on it, the local hotels in which the passengers and crew were accommodated overnight, if Covid-19 tests were carried out in respect of the passengers and crew, and the checks that were carried out to ascertain if weapons or munitions were being carried on the aircraft.