US Air Force C-17 RCH4555 Flies Baltic-to-Andrews Route After Reported Moscow Stop

ADS-B data reviewed by SkyMeter shows a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, tail 07-7181, operating as flight RCH4555, departed from Ventspils, Latvia (EVRS) on August 26, 2026 at 11:30 a.m. UTC and landed at Joint Base Andrews (KADW) in Maryland at 5:00 p.m. local time (21:00 UTC), completing a transatlantic flight of about nine and a half hours.

The aircraft climbed westward out of Ventspils on a heading of roughly 255 degrees, reaching 30,000 feet within about 30 minutes of departure. The track shows a series of heading changes near RAF Spadeadam in northern England, cycling northeast, west, north, and then east before the aircraft settled into a sustained westward cruise. It subsequently climbed further to a maximum of 36,000 feet, where it cruised at ground speeds around 220 to 231 knots on a heading of approximately 210 degrees. Descent toward Andrews began about five and a half hours into the cruise portion, with the steepest recorded descent rate reaching 2,460 feet per minute. The final approach into Andrews was flown on a steady southward heading of 180 degrees at roughly 120 knots, with a consistent descent rate of around 600 feet per minute through the last several minutes of the track.

According to airlive.net, the flight followed a reported stop by a U.S. C-17 at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, though the ADS-B track itself covers only the Ventspils-to-Andrews segment. The full flight can be replayed on SkyMeter.