Russian Doomsday Plane Takes Flight as One Flies Over St. Louis

This sounds like something out of a Tom Clancy novel, but I can prove it really happened. Two things happened almost simultaneously Wednesday. As a Russian "doomsday plane" took off from Moscow, a US "doomsday plane" was spotted over St. Louis, Missouri.

Let me be crystal clear. I am NOT saying this is a sign that the apocalypse is near. I just find it intriguing (and likely purely coincidental) that some in St. Louis reported seeing an E-4B Nightwatch appear on radar passing over the St. Louis area around midday Wednesday. I confirmed that was true from Military Aircraft Tracker. If you're new to the "doomsday plane" world, this is the worst-case scenario US command and control option in the event of a catastrophe or national crisis where ground control is unavailable.

At the same time as the reports of a US "doomsday plane" from St. Louis were happening, a TU-214 took off from Moscow and headed north. That's the Russian command and control plane which is their answer to a presidential airborne command aircraft. It's considered a special mission option for Russia.

As I've said before, it's not unusual for an E-4B Nightwatch to be seen over Missouri since their home is Offutt Air Force Base in southeastern Nebraska. However, I don't often see them fly a route that takes them over St. Louis. Today's flight was also unusual in that the destination seemed to be the Columbus, Ohio region which would not normally include St. Louis in its path. This is also odd timing considering the weird "doomsday plane" flight path that went over Illinois two days ago.

Back to my original point. There's nothing to be alarmed about. This flight information is also not classified. I personally wish it were, but for some reason many of these planes can be seen on radar by whoever is interested enough to look for them. The reason why remains a mystery. Now, back to reading my favorite Tom Clancy book "The Sum of All Fears".