Maybe it was N163PA (KDAL to KFDK)

(I meant this to be a reply to my earlier post)

Maybe N173PA is not as unique of a Gulfstream 3 as I thought, because after I went to bed last night N163PA left KFDK for KVPC (a where N173PA seems to be based).

flightaware.com/live/flight/N163PA

As for the media, they kept them at arms length at the airport but taxiing the plane to the part of the airport that is the home of the Maryland state police aviation division, which is off limits to the general public.

The local paper’s photos were close ups but didn’t capture the tail number, they were more focused on the door, and local TV cameras did not have the clarity to make out the tail number.

While the passenger is an interesting case, it is the aircraft and its travels that I find more interesting. I guess I have a new one to track.

I wonder what an ADS-B receiver would have told me.

It was spotted Mode S only at FL410 during the time it was supposed to be flying from Dallas to Atlanta.

The two planes being used by the CDC to transport ebola patients are the only bio containment planes in the world owned by Phoenix Air, tail numbers N173PA and N163PA. You can see images of both with tail numbers at phoenixair.com , one under Air Ambulance and one under Miscellaneous