The U.S. Homeland Security Department, early in the morning, received a very significant tip.
An agent belonging to the United States Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) reported to the National Security Agency (NSA) under his own name, claiming that on a business jet that had taken off from New York a few hours earlier, there were people on board who were carrying highly classified information related to defence chips and were on their way to China.
The National Security Agency receives many similar messages every day through various channels, but experience has proven that the vast majority are false, and some are even pranks.
However, this tip came from an agent of a sister department, and this credibility was instantly and infinitely elevated.
After all, we are all colleagues, we all know the seriousness of defence work, and it is about their own jobs, as well as the corresponding legal responsibility, no one will joke about this kind of thing.
Just as the National Security Bureau was about to discuss a countermeasure, another piece of news came to them that caused them to be shocked, the dia agent who had provided the tip-off, had actually fallen to his death!
Although it was temporarily impossible to tell whether the agent had committed suicide or homicide, but combined with the situation he had just reacted to, everyone in the Homeland Security Bureau felt as if they were on the edge of their seats, and instinctively thought that there must be a big conspiracy here.
Thus, they used the fastest speed to make an emergency deployment and formulated an emergency plan.
Firstly, the target aircraft was to be ordered to turn around and return;
Secondly, in view of the 911 incident more than two decades ago, in order to avoid the other party from behaving irrationally, they could not allow the other party to return to New York, a bustling metropolis, the Security Bureau looked for a small airport in the northern part of Vermont at the border between the United States and Canada, and requested the other party to land at the designated airport;
Once again, agents, police and military forces were dispatched to the airport to make all preparations, while two f35s were dispatched by the Vermont National Guard to take off ahead of schedule to Canada’s airspace to pick up and accompany the aircraft until the target aircraft landed at the designated airport, in order to avoid accidents to the greatest extent possible.
After the aircraft landed, the police and agents took full control of the aircraft, arrested and interrogated all the people on board, and at the same time, used the most professional means to carry out the most detailed inspection of the aircraft.
And at this moment, this ultra-long-range private aircraft, which was leased by Chen Zhimin, was flying over Hudson Bay, Canada.
Although this aircraft had already flown for more than three hours, it had only just flown one-fifth of the way compared to the long voyage of fifteen hours.
Its flight route was to pass over Canada, then through the Bering Strait between the United States and Russia, and take the route over Japan to reach Yanjing.
According to the original route from New York to Yanjing, they only needed thirteen hours to fly the whole way, but because the war in Eastern Europe had not yet been extinguished, the route needed to bypass Russia, which added an extra two hours to the journey.
For such a long route, the cost of chartering the plane alone would be more than two million RMB, but at this time, there was not even a single passenger in the cabin of the plane, except for the crew members.
At this time, the crew members had already turned on the autopilot, allowing the aircraft to fly smoothly at an altitude of 11,000 metres, however, at this time, they suddenly received a radio communication from the ground air traffic control, requesting them to immediately complete the turn over the Hudson Bay, return to the United States, and land at a small airport in the northern part of Burlington, Vermont, according to the requirements.
The city of Burlington is only sixty kilometres from the United States-Canada border, and the small airport to its north is even less than twenty kilometres from the border line.
This airport has been gradually abandoned by the civil aviation system over the years, and its current main use is for American civilian flying clubs.
Since ATC had not explained over the radio why the flight was suddenly being asked to return, and to land at an airport that had been virtually abandoned by the civil aviation system, the captain asked over the radio for the reason for the request to return.