THE New England Patriots’ team plane has been spotted in strange territory this offseason.
Flight records show the Patriots’ team plane headed to and from Guantanamo Bay.
3
3
That sentence is outrageous as it sounds. For some reason, the team plane that brings Patriots players around the country made a stop at the naval station.
Guantanamo Bay is a Navy base and detention camp known for holding some of the United States’ biggest military prisoners.
One Bluesky user, JJ in DC, spotted the team plane on Flightradar headed from Guantanamo Bay to Texas.
A separate user that specifically tracks flights in and out of Guantanamo Bay, GTMO Watch, confirmed this flight on Flightradar and ADSB Exchange.
Flight history shows that the Patriots team plane, registration number N36NE (callsign OAE548), went in and out of Guantanamo Bay on Sunday.
The plane left Fort Worth, Texas, at 6:21 am CDT and arrived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at 10:49 am CDT.
After only a few hours, the plane took off again at 2:24 pm CDT and landed in Fort Bliss/El Paso, Texas at 5:05 pm MDT.
While all of the flight records check out, there is still one massive burning question: Why is there a Patriots plane in Guantanamo Bay?
There are a few clues as to what could be happening with the Patriots team plane.
The plane is operated by Omni Air International, and it is currently advertised as “now available for charter.”
This means the Patriots’ two Boeing 767-300 planes are available to be chartered by private companies.
Omni Air notably takes military charters, and the Patriots plane has done these trips in the past.
The Patriots team plane could be under a charter to take soldiers and other military members to Guantanamo Bay.
Some NFL fans saw the recent flight on social media, and shared their ideas and some stories of past military activity using the plane.
“Dropping all my other conspiracy theories for this,” one fan said.
“My cousin in the Marines got flown to the Philippines in that thing,” another fan said.
“My unit flew on this plane to one of the training centers a few years back,” a third fan said.
3
While it is worth noting that Guantanamo Bay is a major hub for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the Patriots have confirmed that their plane is not used for those purposes.
When approached for comment by The U.S Sun, the Patriots confirmed its charter to the Department of Defense for the movement of military personnel.
“The New England Patriots plane was not used for any kind of deportation flight and there were no detainees on the plane,” the statement said.
“Under our current charter manager, neither of the Patriots planes have ever been used for that purpose.
“The team planes are operated by a professional charter company when they are not in use by the team. This company manages all logistics, bookings, and operations independently.
“The New England Patriots organization is not involved in, nor does it approve, sanction, or coordinate the uses of the aircrafts when they are chartered for non-team purposes.
“The charter company uses the Patriots planes as part of their inventory when chartering to the Department of Defense to move military personnel as well as other government agencies with no financial gain to the organization.”
