US Navy 'Doomsday Plane' vanishes from tracking over Atlantic Ocean
The Bermuda Triangle might've claimed another victim, as a supposed 'Doomsday Plane' belonging to the US Navy has vanished over the Atlantic Ocean. In a case where it's sometimes best to be in the dark, little has been made public about the Boeing E-6B Mercury.
There's a reason the 16 specially made aircraft have earned their names as doomsday planes.
Serving as a mobile command unit in times of crisis, the E-6B Mercury planes are supposed to be used by the Secretary of War and the President.
Relaying instructions from the National Command Authority to the country's fleet of ballistic missile submarines, the E-6Bs are crucial in the TACAMO ("Take Charge And Move Out") missions.
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With an impressive wingspan of 148 feet, a top speed of 967 km/h, and being able to fly for 10 hours and 30 minutes without being refuelled, these pieces of kit came with a jaw-dropping $141.7 million price tag when they were first deployed in 1998.
A bit like when the US Navy was blamed for losing $110 million worth of military vehicles in 30 minutes, we're sure there are questions about where the missing E-GB has gone.
Still, the idea that the plane has actually gone missing could be the best scenario when you consider why it might've purposefully gone dark.
Flight data shows how the plane left Maryland's Naval Air Station Patuxent River as planned, and followed a routine path over the Chesapeake Bay and near the Norfolk naval complex before heading out to sea.
The public transponder went dark around 60 miles east of the Virginia Capes, although this is normal practice when undertaking sensitive operations.
While out there, the E-6Bs tend to enter classified zones and fly racetrack patterns for up to eight hours while transmitting secure test messages to submarines and stations on land.
None of this is too out of the ordinary, but according to the Daily Mail, the plane remains 'dark', leading to speculation about what it's up to out there and whether we're heading into World War III territory.
The dark plane is operating under the callsign of AFD FE2 and was last seen following a route typically used for TACAMO missions. Due to the connection to nuclear conflict, there are obvious alarm bells that something is afoot.
Timing is interesting, especially considering the Thanksgiving period is when operations like this are usually scaled back. Either way, the 16 doomsday planes are part of Operation Looking Glass, which is there in case of emergency, and ground-based command centers are destroyed.
Sounding like something Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer might have to deal with in a season of 24, the doomsday planes are here to deal with the very real threat of nuclear attacks.
The planes rely on older analogue tech, meaning they can withstand an electromagnetic pulse that would take out more modern communications.
A doomsday plane was last seen in March 2025, when flight radar spotted one leaving Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City. Most interestingly, three other Mercury planes were spotted in the air the same day that AFD FE2 went dark.
One did a short trip outside Tulsa that lasted just an hour, while another headed south toward Dallas, and the third was seen leaving Maryland. There's no official word on what the planes are up to, but if they're living up to their 'doomsday' moniker, preppers might want to start prepping.