{"id":422090,"date":"2026-05-07T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/little-known-us-law-photographing-military-aircraft-federal-crime\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:00:18","slug":"the-little-known-us-law-that-makes-photographing-military-aircraft-a-federal-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=422090","title":{"rendered":"The Little-Known US Law That Makes Photographing Military Aircraft A Federal Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The vast majority of aviation enthusiasts are well aware of the fairly straightforward principle that photographing aircraft from public land is usually legal. However, there is a very specific exception to this rule that most planespotters are well aware of. Federal prosecutors have indicated that Tianrui Liang, a 21-year-old Chinese national studying aeronautical engineering at the University of Glasgow, crossed into the <span class=\"display-card-hyperlink display-card-hyperlink-no-vignette\" data-id=\"128663\"style=\";  ;\" class=\"display-card-hyperlink display-card-hyperlink-no-vignette\"><a href=\"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/tag\/united-states\/\"  >United States<\/a><\/span> on a valid B1\/B2 visa, traveled to several military sites, and photographed aircraft at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, which is home to the United States Strategic Command. He was ultimately arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York on April 7, 2026, while allegedly trying to leave for Scotland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National security concerns are behind this seemingly bizarre rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,628,412,2679,423],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aircraft","category-fighter-jets","category-military","category-photography","category-united-states"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO Pro 4.9.8 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"National security concerns are behind this seemingly bizarre rule.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest authors\"\/>\n\t<meta name=\"google-site-verification\" content=\"1EIWGZ5FoylKQrO3pqls-2hXlDXKIP1lffdWZCVV0V4\" \/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=422090\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO Pro (AIOSEO) 4.9.8\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"VibeWire Magazine - 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