The plane on Tuesday was a Lockheed C-130H Hercules out of Little Rock Air Force Base, nicknamed “The Rock.”
This plane was not as much of a mystery as the C-17 that buzzed the Snyderville Basin in March. Nextdoor user Andrew D. from Jeremy Ranch cracked the case Thursday.
The callsign for this Hercules on May 23 was ROLER48. It took off in Austin, Texas, and flew all the way to Reno, Nevada.
The plane took a direct northwest route up to Evanston, Wyoming, but then made a hard left above Interstate 80 over to Park City and Heber City. From there, the pilot followed the Provo Canyon before continuing west to Reno.
Andrew D. pointed out that the ADS-B data includes altitude.
The data on ROLER48’s flight path is more complete than the data from SWORD11 back on March 9. There are no ADS-B data points from when the C-17 was above the Wasatch Back.
ROLER48’s data shows the plane was flying at an altitude of 7,500 feet. Park City itself is 7,000 feet above sea level.
That 500-foot difference is the lowest U.S. Air Force planes are allowed to fly in areas with civilians or civilian structures.
But ROLER48 did come within about 400 feet of Parleys Canyon and the Jordanelle Reservoir, before making a steep climb above Heber for sightseeing in Deer Creek State Park.