A 21-year-old Chinese national, Tianrui Liang, has been arrested and faces federal charges after allegedly photographing sensitive U.S. military aircraft without authorization at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Authorities seized him at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on April 7 following the incident.

According to court documents filed in the Eastern District of New York, Liang violated a federal law prohibiting unauthorized photography of defense installations. An FBI affidavit states that investigators were alerted after a witness reported seeing “a male holding a camera with a telescopic lens” near Offutt Air Force Base, home to U.S. Strategic Command and high-value reconnaissance aircraft including the RC-135 surveillance plane and E-4B “Nightwatch,” often designated as the military’s “doomsday plane.”

The affidavit details Liang’s movements: He traveled from Vancouver, Canada, on March 26 to meet a Columbia University student before driving into the United States via Seattle on March 28. Liang reportedly targeted Ellisworth Air Force Base in South Dakota to photograph B1-B strategic bombers but was redirected to Offutt after learning the aircraft had been moved there. FBI special agent Noah Heflin submitted evidence that Liang obtained instructions for photographing flightlines from a “planespotter” website and later admitted to capturing images of multiple aircraft, including the RC-135 and E-4B.

Liang, a student at the University of Glasgow studying aeronautical engineering in Scotland, acknowledged he knew photographing base aircraft was illegal but claimed the images were for personal collection. The case centers on his unauthorized access to Offutt Air Force Base, where the 55th Wing—the largest unit in the U.S. Air Force’s Air Combat Command—maintains strategic assets. Federal agents asserted “sufficient probable cause” to believe Liang photographed the base without approval of its commander.