We interested in finding out about a US Air Force Gulfstream Aerospace C-37B that landed at Shannon last Tuesday (13th April), stayed overnight, and left the following day.

Its flight history shows that it came from Dubai, and had a Special Air Mission [SAM] call sign. That means that it was probably carrying high ranking government or Department of Defense officials. What is also of note is that before Dubai it was recorded flying over Pakistan. No record of where it landed, but it was in the Pakistan/Afghanistan region.

Saturday night/Sunday morning last saw four warplanes refuelling at Shannon. 

Omni Air troop carrier N486AX landed at 10pm on Saturday night having been in the Middle East and at several European air bases. It took off again at 5.46am on Sunday, heading for Fort Campbell KY .

Omni Air N207AX arricved from Norfork VA in the US at 2.46am (Sunday) and took off heading towards the Middle East at 7.16am.

Omni Air N351AX landed at 8.37am coming from Riyadh in Saudia Arabia.

Sometimes we get information about US military planes landing at Shannon that look a little bit more than refuelling stops. Yesterday was one of those times.

On Monday night (5th) N207AX, an Omni Air Boeing 767 troop carrier arrived from Biggs Air Base in El Paso Texas, landing at Shannon at 23.53. It had been scheduled to leave El Paso on Sunday morning, but it left on Monday morning instead. 

Another unusual thing about it was that it did not go the normal route. It went up over Greenland and down the West Coast of Ireland. All the way from El Paso, Texas.

We're still keeping track of the ongoing US troop movements through Shannon.

In the past 24 hours there have been at least five troop carriers at the airport. Four planes have passed through Shannon on their way to and from the Middle East, with destinations that included Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, Al Udeid air base in Qatar and Kuwait.

On Saturday April 3rd Omni N819AX arrived at Shannon from Biggs air base Texas and then flew on to Al Udeid air base in Qatar and to Kuwait.

Last Monday (March 8th) The Examiner reported that there have been nine instances of US troops stopping overnight at Shannon Airport with around one military flight per day landing this year. The newspaper reported that in response to a question from Paul Murphy TD, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney confirmed that between 1 January and 17 February 2021, diplomatic clearance was provided for landings of 44 foreign military aircraft in Ireland.

As reported in the Irish Times of Feb 27th, two more serious breaches of Covid 19 regulations by the US military have been discovered at Shannon. These are in addition to the three breaches we already reported.

In response to a Dail question by SInn Fein spokesperson John Brady TD, Foreign Affairs and Defence Minister Simon Coveney was forced to admit that a further 113 US soldiers were in breach of Covid 19 regulations at Shannon Airport during January this year.

By our calculations this brings to at least 413 the total number of US military personnel who were in breach of these regulations since January 1st.

The following letter was written to the National Clinical Director for Health Protection and the Department of Public Health in Limerick on February 9th, by a member of Shannonwatch. An acknowledgement was received, but otherwise there has been no reply to the issues raised.

I am contacting you to request your prompt intervention as Medical Officer of Health with regard to the life-threatening risk of infection posed to the population of the Mid-West and the whole population of Ireland by air travellers entering Ireland via Shannon Airport from the United States and the Middle East, where there is a high incidence of Covid-19.

Earlier this week we wrote about a US Air Force, Special Operations Command Dornier C-146A 'Wolfhound' aircraft registration 97-3093 that arrived in Shannon on 8th February from the USA, spent over 17 hours at the airport, and took off on the morning of 9th February.

Catherine Connolly TD asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs about the circumstances concerning the aircraft, the number of passengers and crew members on it, the local hotels in which the passengers and crew were accommodated overnight, if Covid-19 tests were carried out in respect of the passengers and crew, and the checks that were carried out to ascertain if weapons or munitions were being carried on the aircraft.

Shannonwatch call on the Irish government to explain why troops landing at Shannon on US military and military contracted flights were repeatedly allowed to overnight at local hotels over the last three weeks, despite restrictions on travel in the interests of public health.

On Jan 25^th, passengers and crew from a US Navy plane that landed at Shannon were permitted to stay at a Limerick hotel. On Jan 28^th, 226 troops from an Omni Air International plane stayed overnight in a number of Limerick hotels. Yet despite the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney saying the US authorities had assured him it would not happen again, it did. On February 8^th a US Air Force Special Operations Command Dornier C-140A aircraft spent over 17 hours at Shannon and both crew members and passengers accommodated overnight in a local hotel.

Between Jan 25th and Feb 8th the US military breached Covid-19 regulations at Shannon Airport on at least three occasions. This was compounded by crew members and troops being allowed to go to local hotels where they stayed overnight without isolating. There have been claims of errors on the part of the US authorities; our Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said the issue of non-compliance with public health guidelines was a serious one; the US embassy said it takes it very seriously, and has apologised. But its hard to take any of their words seriously since they repeated the breaches of the regulations.

This is part of an ongoing pattern of disregard for regulations and the law by the US military at Shannon. 

Its even harder to believe US assurances when one looks at the disregard they have shown for the people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and the many other countries that have been devastated by their wars and weapons supplies.