Chinese Student Arrested for Photos of Military Planes at US Base

A 21-year-old Chinese national studying aeronautical engineering at the University of Glasgow in Scotland was arrested at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on April 7 after federal authorities accused him of photographing sensitive military aircraft without authorization at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska.

Tianrui Liang faces charges under a federal law prohibiting the unauthorized photography of vital military installations. Court documents filed in the Eastern District of New York detail that the alleged incident occurred on March 31 during a road trip across the United States. Investigators say Liang admitted to taking the photos from a public road adjacent to the base, capturing images of an RC-135 reconnaissance plane and an E-4B Nightwatch, known as the military's "doomsday plane." The E-4B serves as an airborne operations center for the president, secretary of defense, and joint chiefs of staff during national emergencies, functioning as a mobile command post.

According to an FBI affidavit, the case began when a witness reported seeing a man in a vehicle near the base's flight line holding a camera equipped with a telescopic lens as an aircraft...