What did candace owens claim about egyptian planes and what evidence did she present?
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Executive summary
Candace Owens publicly asserted that two Egyptian military aircraft repeatedly shadowed Turning Point USA figures — most prominently Erika Kirk — and that those same planes were present near Provo, Utah, on the day Charlie Kirk was shot; she has pointed to flight-tracking data, alleged rental-car records and transponder information as the basis for the theory [1] [2] [3]. Owens has also said she lacks definitive proof, relied on public flight-tracking sources and third-party claims, and faced immediate pushback from media, critics and some researchers who say her timeline and data interpretations are flawed [4] [5] [6].
1. What Owens has claimed: repeated “Egyptian plane” tracking of Erika Kirk
Owens has repeatedly claimed that two Egyptian Air Force planes — identified in her reporting by tail numbers such as SU-BTT and SU-BND in some accounts — overlapped with Erika Kirk’s international travel dozens of times (Owens has quantified the overlap as roughly 69–73 occasions between 2022 and September 2025) and that the pattern suggests the aircraft were tracking Erika rather than Charlie Kirk [1] [7] [2].
2. What Owens says happened on the day of the shooting
Owens added that on September 10, 2025, the day Charlie Kirk was shot, one of those Egyptian planes was briefly “powered on” at Provo Airport while another was seen taking off nearby, which she frames as circumstantial evidence of foreign surveillance activity connected to the attack [1] [3].
3. The evidence Owens presented: flight tracks, transponders, cars and tips
Owens has said her case rests on flight-tracking data—which she and others have mined from public ADS‑B/flight‑tracking sources—and on ancillary data she says connect passengers to rental cars, including makes, models and license plates that she publicly shared and invited crowdsourcing to locate near Utah Valley University [3] [7]. She has also cited claims that one of the Egyptian planes was “transponding” at a Duncan Aviation facility and relayed a video clip in which she says third‑party sources (including someone she described as a federal agent) warned her about Turning Point USA asking her to stop discussing the story [3] [4].
4. How Owens described the planes’ behavior and intent
Owens has suggested the planes regularly flew in and out of Israel and sometimes disabled transponders during those legs, and she speculated — explicitly labeling much of it as conjecture — that the aircraft could be equipped to make private satellite calls or otherwise operate in ways typical of military or government-linked surveillance assets [8] [3].
5. Counterclaims, limits of the evidence and journalistic context
Multiple outlets and critics note major limits and disputes: Owens herself said she did not yet have proof; law enforcement agencies have not confirmed her headline assertions; analysts and other researchers have disputed her flight-data interpretations (including alleged time‑zone calculation errors), and at least one public analysis asserted that Owens’ core claim of long‑term shadowing is false based on publicly available flight records [4] [5] [6]. Reporters also documented a prank episode and errors in Owens’ early timeline that undercut confidence in some of her specific claims [9]. In short, Owens presented flight‑tracking snapshots, third‑party tips and vehicle details as evidence, but independent verification and official confirmation of a coordinated foreign surveillance plot tied to Charlie Kirk’s killing have not appeared in the reporting reviewed here [7] [4].