Is a picture of Air Force Two without a tail number proof that the photo was digitally manipulated? No, that's not true: A spokesperson from the Air Force's 89th Airlift Wing, which maintains and flies aircraft for government leaders, told Lead Stories that planes normally used for Air Force One and Two are being cleared of tail numbers for security purposes. Lead Stories could not find any evidence that the photo in question had been manipulated.
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) where it was published on August 10, 2024. The post, in part, read:
This is what the Commie Voters in your orbit are seeing, and likely choosing to believe is real. Note the aircraft has no tail number, AF TWO has a tail number. Zoom in and see some interesting things.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Aug 13 19:03:20 2024 UTC)
In the post is an image of a crowd holding signs supporting the Harris-Walz campain, and a plane on a runway. The plane has the words, "United States of America" on the side. The post does not provide any details on when or where this photo was taken.
A reverse image search (archived here) led to BBC and CBS reports on a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The news reports included photos showing the aircraft without a tail number. Reuters (archived here) and PBS' footage of the event, which took place on August 7, 2024, in Detroit, Michigan, show the same aircraft included with reporting on a similar crowd size as the photo in the Facebook post. Evidence of PBS' reporting is below:
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Aug 19 15:05:25 2024 UTC)
KamalaHQ, the verified X account for the Harris-Walz campaign, posted the picture, declaring that it is real (archived here):
1) This is an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan
-- Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 11, 2024
2) Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week... Low energy? pic.twitter.com/VgTfoMAcuk
Lead Stories reached out to the 89th Airlift Wing on August 13th, 2024. Amelia Chromy, a spokesperson for the 89th Airlift Wing, told Lead Stories:
We do have some aircrafts that don't have numbers on the tail.
And according to Chromy, that included C-32s, the planes normally used for Air Force Two. A C-32 is called Air Force Two when it carries the vice president, first lady, members of Congress or members of the presidential cabinet.
When Lead Stories asked if this was a new policy and, if so, why it was implemented, we received an answer in an August 14, 2024, phone call, Chromy replied:
In accordance with air mobility command policy released last year by General Minihan, all C-32s assigned to the 89th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Andrews have removed their tail number due to maintaining operational security of our missions.
Gen. Mike Minihan serves as U.S. Transportation Command's air component.
The Warzone, a publication that reports on U.S. defense news, has also reported on this new policy.
Lead Stories used TrueMedia.org to check whether or not this image had been manipulated with AI (archived here). TrueMedia labeled it as uncertain. However, Hive Moderation determined that it is "not likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content." Evidence of Hive Moderation's analysis is below:
(Source: HiveModeration.com screenshot taken on Mon Aug 19 14:26:52 2024 UTC)
Snopes, FactCheck.org, USA Today and Reuters have fact-checked similar claims.
Other Lead Stories fact checks claims related to Vice President Harris are here.
