Skip to main content
← Planes

Air Force Two Casket Flight

On September 11, 2025, the day after the assassination, Air Force Two — the Vice President's dedicated Special Air Mission aircraft (a US Air Force C-32A, the military Boeing 757) — transported Charlie Kirk's casket from Salt Lake City, Utah to Phoenix, Arizona (Sky Harbor). Vice President JD Vance accompanied the flight along with Erika Kirk and family, and was widely reported to have helped carry the casket on the tarmac. This page records the flight that carried Kirk's remains home; it documents a respectful official transport and alleges no wrongdoing by any person.

Why this flight is in the catalog​

Unlike the surveillance and VIP-movement flights elsewhere in this section, this aircraft is logged here because it is the flight that carried Charlie Kirk's body after the killing — the "afterwards" flight that anchors the immediate post-assassination timeline. It is the one entry in the aircraft catalog whose purpose is undisputed and openly reported. It is preserved alongside the other tracked tail numbers so the complete set of flights tied to the events of September 10-11, 2025 sits in one place.

Flight summary​

  • Date: September 11, 2025 (the day after the September 10 assassination)
  • Aircraft: Air Force Two — US Air Force C-32A (Boeing 757-200) executive transport
  • Route: Salt Lake City, UT → Phoenix, AZ (Sky Harbor)
  • Reported departure base: Roland Wright Air National Guard Base, Salt Lake City (reported as the origin in several accounts of the flight)
  • Cargo: Charlie Kirk's casket
  • Aboard: Vice President JD Vance, Erika Kirk, and family members
  • Reported detail: Vice President Vance helped carry the casket on the tarmac, reportedly carrying it aboard the aircraft
  • Arrival noted: "Wheels down" at Phoenix Sky Harbor was noted on X, posted alongside photos of the casket being loaded

How it was reported​

The casket transport was covered broadly as a respectful, official act — the sitting Vice President personally accompanying the remains of a slain political ally back to his home state. Some partisan commentary on X has separately characterized the Vice President's involvement as overly political or theatrical, while mainstream coverage treated it as a dignified transfer. Both framings are noted here as reactions to a publicly reported event; this page takes no position beyond recording the flight itself.

The flight brought Kirk's remains to Phoenix ahead of the public memorial service later held in the Phoenix area (reported as on or around September 21, 2025). A separate strand of online commentary has scrutinized aspects of the official handling and logistics of the post-assassination flights generally; that is noted here only as the existence of such commentary, with no assertion of any cover-up or wrongdoing.

Routing note: While most accounts describe the Salt Lake City → Phoenix leg above, some reports reference related Vice-Presidential movements in the Joint Base Andrews / Hagerstown area in connection with the broader memorial logistics. These are reported as separate legs around the same window; the minor routing differences are recorded here as-attributed rather than resolved.

Relationship to the other Air Force Two entry​

This September 11 casket flight is distinct from the 99-0004 Vance Flight entry, which documents a C-32A operating as Air Force Two logged to Las Vegas on May 27, 2025 — months before the assassination. Both involve a C-32A in the Air Force Two role, but they are different dates, routes, and purposes. They are catalogued separately so neither is conflated with the other.

Open questions​

  1. What was the exact tail number and call sign of the September 11 casket flight?
  2. What was the full manifest of those who flew with the casket from Salt Lake City to Phoenix?

Sources​

  • News coverage of Vice President JD Vance accompanying Charlie Kirk's casket from Salt Lake City to Phoenix on September 11, 2025.
  • Public reporting and imagery of the tarmac casket transfer.
  • X posts noting "wheels down" at Phoenix Sky Harbor with photos of the casket being loaded; accounts reporting Roland Wright Air National Guard Base, Salt Lake City as the departure point.
  • Public ADS-B tracking for Special Air Mission / Air Force Two movements in that window.

Laws (Charlie Kirk)​

  • The full manifest and official records of the September 11 casket flight are the kind of records that the Charlie Kirk Investigation Laws may help bring fully into the public record.

Track This Aircraft​

This flight used Air Force Two, a USAF C-32A (Boeing 757-200), on September 11, 2025 from Salt Lake City (KSLC) to Phoenix (KPHX). The specific tail was not published in the case notes; the C-32A VIP fleet includes tails such as 98-0001, 98-0002, 99-0003, 99-0004, 09-0015, and 09-0016. Research it on both major flight-tracking sites:

  • ADS-B Exchange — volunteer-fed, unfiltered tracker that does not honor the FAA's LADD block list; the most reliable source for military VIP movements. Search the route/date (KSLC→KPHX, Sep 11 2025) or a specific C-32A tail.
  • FlightRadar24 — large commercial tracker that honors LADD, so this government flight may be limited or absent.

Related: the 99-0004 Vance Flight page covers a specific C-32A — tail 99-0004, ICAO hex ADFEBA (ADS-B Exchange by hex). If the casket flight used that airframe, the hex link is the durable way to find it.