A stealth fighter, a military jet designed to be invisible on radar, was stolen during Day 4 by Mitch Anderson to attack Air Force One.
Day 4[]
At roughly 10pm, the mercenary and ex-USAF pilot Mitch Anderson, while impersonating John Hansen (a pilot he murdered), hijacked The Phoenix, an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter, and was cleared for takeoff by a deceived Air Force flight coordinator named Horter. Anderson remained in contact by his client, Habib Marwan. He was later contacted by Jack Bauer, who attempted to convince him to land, but instead he disabled the fighter's radio frequencies. He fired one of the missiles at Air Force One, destroying an escort fighter but forcing the presidential aircraft to crash-land. His aircraft was destroyed by an escort fighter.
Background information and notes[]
- It was not specified if Anderson ejected from the aircraft or was killed.
- In real life, F-117A is a stealth ground-attack aircraft, with no air-to-air capability, and would have been unable to attack Air Force One as shown in the episode. The confusion stems from how this aircraft was indeed commonly referred to as a "stealth fighter" in reality, and actually is labeled with an "F", which normally indicates "fighter".