Mystery flight circles over Denver; officials have few answers

denverchannel.com ^

[bryan999]

DENVER -- Thousands saw a plane circling the Denver metro area late Wednesday morning, questioning where it may have come from and what it may be doing. Officials at a host of federal organizations had few answers.

Denver7 began tracking a flight named IRON99 as it traversed from California over the pacific. It traveled over the Rocky Mountains and eventually over the Denver metro area.

Its arrival over the Denver metro is what prompted questions from a host of locals who saw it circling, questioning what it might have been doing.

Visually, the plane circled in a racetrack-style oval shape over the City of Denver at roughly 32,000 feet several times.

[skimbell]

[WKUHilltopper]

LOL

[Axenolith]

Probably a [Russian?] treaty verification aircraft, though it doesn’t look like one they manufacture.

[ameribbean expat]

Boeing E6 Mercury.

[pfflier]

If it has a callsign, it is known to the controllers. It is a typical military callsign. If a TV station can track it, from source to destination, it ain't classified.

It looks like a KC-135. The orbit suggests a refuelling track but the dimensions of the orbit are not specific, only the shape. It could also be a holding pattern or simply part of a training aspect of the mission.

Flying to Oklahoma is not unusual either. They train KC-135 crews at Altus AFB and they do heavy depot maintenance for them and E-3A AWACS at Tinker AFB.

[Parley Baer]

“Boeing E6 Mercury.”

I bet you are correct. In the link it says it flew off towards Oklahoma. That would probably be Tinker AFB. That also fits for it to be a E6.

[ameribbean expat]

I’m figuring an E6 that took off from Travis AFB, had some sort of training mission related to silo C&C - hence the time over CO, and landed at Tinker. Travis and Tinker are both E6 homes.

[bruin66]

Looking for a new quarterback...

[doorgunner69]

Racetrack pattern and four engine jet says tanker on a refueling gig.

Watched one orbit over Ventura county years ago, and now and then you could pick out the faint contrails of fighters joining up.

[Mat_Helm]

Yep,Boeing E6 Mercury is precisely what that is. Looking Glass and USAF is not going to publicly tell anyone what that flight was. Strategic Recon and Nuclear Response communication.

[Osage Orange]

Bingo

[jiggyboy]

"FlightRadar24 is an app and website which tracks the flight path of every plane currently in the air. On March 12, 2015, someone using it noticed an interesting path being carved into the skies over Lakeland, Florida."

http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-people-who-put-massive-effort-into-drawing-dicks/

[T-Bone Texan]

Well, that was the first and last time I go to Cracked.com!

[ops33]

“Visually, the plane circled in a racetrack-style oval shape over the City of Denver at roughly 32,000 feet several times.”

Sounds like enroute holding.