'Doomsday Plane' appearance at LAX sparks online worry

Airplanes sit on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport.

(Gregory Bull / Associated Press)

Corinne Purtill

Staff Writer

Jan. 10, 2026

1 PM PT

2 min

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The military aircraft known as the “Doomsday Plane” touched down at Los Angeles International Airport this week.

The plane brought U.S. War Secretary

Pete Hegseth

to southern California as part of his monthlong “Arsenal of Freedom” tour.

The federal government’s Boeing E-4B Nightwatch — a military aircraft known, somewhat alarmingly, as the “Doomsday Plane” — touched down at Los Angeles International Airport this week, in what may be the famed aircraft’s first-ever LAX landing.

Aviation enthusiasts spotted the plane on Thursday on its approach to LAX. Billed by the U.S. Air Force as a “highly survivable command, control and communications center.”

The plane is equipped to serve as an airborne operations center for the president, the Defense Secretary and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the event of a disaster that wipes out command centers on land.

Its sudden appearance at a busy commercial airport sparked a flurry of online speculation.

“WAR IMMINENT?” one X user posted, in one of several anxious social media responses to the plane’s appearance.

In this case, the plane was ferrying U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to southern California as part of his monthlong “Arsenal of Freedom” tour.

Hegseth spoke Thursday at the Long Beach manufacturing plant, Rocket Lab, the second stop on what the Department of Defense described as a monthlong tour of U.S. industrial defense companies.

The Defense Department later posted images on social media of Hegseth working out with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at UCLA.

LONG BEACH, CA - JANUARY 9, 2026 - United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to employees with defense/aerospace manufacturing company Rocket Lab in Long Beach on January 9, 2026. The stop was part of Hegseth's nationwide, "Arsenal of Freedom," tour, a call to action to revitalize America's manufacturing and re-energize the nation's workforce. Rocket Lab won major government contracts to build satellites, including a recent $816 million deal in late 2025 for 18 missile-tracking satellites for the Space Development Agency (SDA). (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Business

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth tours Long Beach rocket factory

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth toured the factory of Long Beach rocket and satellite maker Rocket Lab, one of a new wave of Southern California aerospace companies.

Jan. 10, 2026

Far-right activist Laura Loomer, Breitbart News reporter Olivia Rondeau and media figure L. Todd Wood accompanied Hegseth on the trip and shared photos of themselves with the plane online.

The E-4B is a militarized version of Boeing’s 747 aircraft, and is designed to withstand electromagnetic pulses and the heat of a nuclear attack. The Air Force keeps at least one at the ready at all times in case of an emergency.