A fake Air Force One seemed to appear over the United States but the truth soon came out

A fake Air Force One using the callsign VANCE1 suddenly ‘appeared’ over the United States, and flight-tracking fans could not believe what they were seeing.

The aircraft icon, linked to the Boeing VC-25A normally used as Air Force One, seemed to fly strange, highly coordinated patterns across the map.

Screenshots spread quickly, with some people wondering if this was a secret mission or a system glitch.

The truth, however, wasn’t quite as dramatic as many people were suspecting.

SBX CARS – View live supercar auctions powered by Supercar Blondie

The fake Air Force One was a digital ghost

The mystery track showed up on ADS-B Exchange, a popular website where aviation enthusiasts follow aircraft in real time.

But there was one big problem.

No such flight was actually happening in the sky.

What viewers were watching was essentially a digital ghost, created by feeding false location data into the tracking network.

To understand how this prank worked, think of flight tracking like a giant community weather station, but for airplanes.

Aircraft broadcast their position using a system called ADS-B, and thousands of hobbyists around the world use small radio receivers to pick up those signals and share them online.

In fact, it’s pretty common for aviation enthusiasts to track iconic aircraft like Air Force One.

Websites then combine all that data to show aircraft moving on a map.

Here is the catch.

ADS-B signals are not encrypted and do not include a built-in way to prove they are genuine.

While that makes the system wonderfully open, it also makes it vulnerable.

Click the star icon next to supercarblondie.com in Google Search to stay ahead of the curve on the latest and greatest supercars, hypercars, and ground-breaking technology

Tracking aircraft is surprisingly easy

In this case, someone likely injected fake aircraft data into the network through a ground-based receiver setup.

To the website, the made-up signals looked just as real as those from the actual jet, allowing the prankster to ‘draw’ shapes in the sky without leaving the ground.

This is different from a more serious threat called GPS spoofing.

That involves broadcasting fake satellite signals strong enough to fool a real aircraft’s navigation system, potentially affecting where the plane thinks it is.

Basically, you could cause a plane to end up completely lost, just like cars occasionally do on land.

Thankfully, the VANCE1 incident did not reach that level, as it only fooled the map on a website, rather than any real pilots.

Still, the episode highlighted a growing challenge.

As aviation becomes more digital and publicly trackable, it also becomes easier for technically skilled pranksters to create convincing illusions.

Some newer tracking networks are introducing more secure hardware to reduce fake feeds, but openness remains part of the system’s DNA.

In the end, no aircraft were in danger.

However, allowing the public to track any aircraft in the world without restrictions will always cause controversy in some way.

DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie