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Aerial Surveillance Of The Republican and Democratic National Conventions

This repository contains data to support the the findings reported in the July 24, 2016 BuzzFeed News article "The Republican Convention Was Secretly Watched From Above" and the August 1, 2016 article "Government Spy Planes Circled Over The Democratic Convention More Intensely Than GOP Event".

Data

The data comes from the aircraft-tracking website ADSB-Exchange, plus the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) aircraft registration database. ADSB-Exchange takes feeds from aviation enthusiasts who operate radio antennas that can detect transponder signals transmitted by nearby aircraft.

The repository contains the following files:

• rnc.csv Federal, state, and local government aircraft tracked in the vicinity of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, from July 15-22 (the convention ran from July 18-21). Includes two helicopters operated by Midwest Aerial Imaging, identified by BuzzFeed News as a front for the federal government: FAA documents indicate that the helicopters are part of the Department of Homeland Security's fleet.

• dnc.csv Federal, state, and local government aircraft tracked in the vicinity of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, from July 22-29 (the convention ran from July 25-28). Includes a helicopter operated by TAFY Consulting, previously identified as a front for the FBI.

• aeroptic.csv Flights by aircraft operated by Aeroptic, from April 28 to July 25, 2016. Aeroptic is a subsidiary of the defense and intelligence contractor KEYW. It specializes in aerial photography and mapping, and in 2013 was awarded a military contract to provide high-resolution 3D maps to improve battlefield awareness for US troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere. In June 2016, Aeroptic's planes surveyed the two convention cities, Cleveland and Philadelphia.

The files contain the following fields, for each transponder detection:

• adshex Unique identifier for each aircraft, corresponding to its “Mode-S” code, in hexademical format.
• reg Aircraft registration code, sometimes called a “tail number.”
• name Current registrant for the aircraft, from FAA registration database.
• name2 Edited fromname, for consistency, and to reflect government agency behind a front company.
• type International Civil Aviation Organization aircraft type code.
• squawk Four-digit code transmitted by the transponder. (Codes from 4401 to 4433 are reserved for federal law enforcement.)
• longitude latitude Geographic location in digital degrees.
• altitude Altitude in feet.
• heading Compass bearing in degrees, with 0 corresponding to north.
• timestamp Full UTC timestamp.

The files dnc.csv and rnc.csv also contain the following fields:

• loc_timestamp Timestamp in local time, EST in both cases.
• loc_date Local date.

Questions / Feedback

Email the author Peter Aldhous at peter.aldhous@buzzfeed.com.