VIP at ORD "not at liberty to say"?

[wakeup121]

Hey, just had a simple question.

Was listening to the KORD air traffic feed for about the past hour and overheard--during some air to ground communication--something to the effect of "not at liberty to say" when (I think) the control tower was requesting information from the plane. Control tower asked them to repeat, and the plane again mentioned they're not really at liberty to say  I thought that was kind of weird because that doesn't seem typical, but google didn't show much of anything. Then a few minutes later I checked current FAA flight delay information map, noticed ORD was a little bit delayed, and the reason was "OTHER: VIP".

So just out of curiosity, would communication involving "not at liberty to say" involve a VIP flight, or is this just another way of them saying they don't have the information requested? I'm not particularly familiar with plane communications.

[JSchmidtIL]

It's probably Airforce One and President Obama and family returning to Chicago.

[Marty Becker]

Yes, it was the President arriving at KORD.  Several departing aircraft were quizzing the tower controller as to why they were put in the pads and told to shutdown their engines while they waited.  The controller responded that he was no at liberty to say what the delay was for.  It became obvious once AF1 touched down.

The Chicago area has TFRs overhead till Monday.

[RIVERSMVP09]

I talked to someone who said they heard AF1 SAY WHO THEY WERE TO atc ONCE.

[cessna157]

I talked to someone who said they heard AF1 SAY WHO THEY WERE TO atc ONCE.

What?  AF1 uses that callsign anytime the prez is on board.  I heard him many times when I was out flying.  ATC just cannot advertise when AF1 is operating.  That's why the OIS just says VIP movement whenever he comes in and stops traffic.  Most pilots know how to take the hint when AF1 is in the area.

[Marty Becker]

After Air Force One landed at KORD, Marine One flew to Daniel Burnham Park on the south side of Chicago and from there the President took a motorcade to his home in the Hyde park neighborhood.

[RIVERSMVP09]

I talked to someone who said they heard AF1 SAY WHO THEY WERE TO atc ONCE.

What?  AF1 uses that callsign anytime the prez is on board.  I heard him many times when I was out flying.  ATC just cannot advertise when AF1 is operating.  That's why the OIS just says VIP movement whenever he comes in and stops traffic.  Most pilots know how to take the hint when AF1 is in the area.

well what do they do if theres planes in a queue for takeoff, or planes in final landing sequence?

[cessna157]

That completely depends on the airport in use, the presidential procedures for that airport, and the secret service.  Some airports have to stop all traffic, some airports can continue using the side of the airport the activity isn't on.