(FORBES) U.S. president Donald Trump tested positive for the novel-coronavirus on Friday morning. Shortly before the news broke, the U.S. Navy’s doomsday planes launched on both American coasts.
Some observers asserted that the two things were related. But military spokespeople and some experts explained it was coincidence.
“I can confirm these flights were pre-planned missions,” Karen Singer, a U.S. Strategic Command spokesperson, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
The E-6B Mercury is one of the Pentagon’s airborne nuclear command posts. The four-engine planes—derivatives of the Boeing 707 airliner—carry special communication systems and crews for commanding the Navy’s Ohio-class nuclear ballistic-missile submarines.
