Why did this ICE flight turn around over the Atlantic Ocean?

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement charter flight turned around over the Atlantic Ocean Tuesday and flew back to Alexandria, LA. Video of the plane's arrival shows 11 exhausted and shackled people get off the plane – some of whom appeared to be wearing pieces of a full-body straitjacket – before being taken to a holding facility.

The plane – a Gulfstream V operated by Talon Air and co-owned by Jordache Jeans founder Joe Nakash – left the ICE camp hub at 2 a.m. local time on Aug. 4, according to public flight data. It landed in Bangor, ME, likely to refuel, before taking off again at about 7:40 a.m. local time.

Air-traffic control transmissions and a flight plan obtained by activists indicate the flight was running late and that its next stop was supposed to be Chisinau, Moldova. Moldova is a "host" country for Russian or other Eastern European third-country nationals, but it may have also been intended as a refueling or crew-change stop.

MORE: Tracking All of Trump's Known Third-Country Removals

About three hours into the flight, when it was over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the aircraft abruptly turned around. Rather than land back in Bangor or another nearby airport – as an aircraft typically would if it were experiencing a medical or mechanical emergency – it flew all the way back to Alexandria.

It landed in Alexandria at about 3:33 p.m. local – 14 1/2 hours after it left.

In video captured by a person at the scene who did not want to be identified, seven shackled migrants and a two guards walk down the private jet's airstairs while several others wait on the tarmac. All wear gray or black sweatsuits and are shackled at the ankles and wrists attached to a waist chain, as is typical for adult passengers on all ICE flights. They appeared to be exhausted, with several squatting on the ground while the other passengers disembark. White sacks typically used to carry migrants' belongings lay in a pile next to the back door of a prison bus.

The person at the scene said 11 migrants total disembarked from the plane. The Talon Air website indicates the aircraft has a seating capacity of 17 passengers. The other seats were all likely occupied by ICE agents and contract guards, typically from the GEO Group.

In another video (screenshot below), at least two migrants are seen wearing a black-and-yellow backstrap resembling a piece of the WRAP device, a full body straitjacket used to restrain migrant passengers deemed "unruly." Migrants and flight attendants have reported people being put in the WRAP after asking to speak to their lawyer or asking for their heart medication. A 2025 AP investigation revealed use of the WRAP device in prisons has caused multiple deaths.

The passengers all appeared to be men, according to the person at the scene. They were put on a bus and taken to a holding facility next to the tarmac.

Though it is highly unusual for an ICE flight to turn around over the Atlantic, these types of false starts to deportations are not unprecedented and often lead to prolonged and painful shackling.

Last October, an ICE removal trip that left from Alexandria landed at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport before returning to Alexandria, leading to some passengers being shackled for at least 75 hours straight.

A passenger on this flight, Vinnie Thongthiou, said the pilot made an announcement that they had lost their clearance to land in Romania. Once back in Alexandria, nearly 200 passengers, including about 20 elderly people had to walk across the tarmac to the same holding facility, according to Thongthiou, where he slept on the concrete floor, waist chain digging into his side. Early the next morning, when they had to reboard the plane, many of the elderly people were too weak to walk, he said. Thongthiou pushed an elderly Laotian man's wheelchair up to the plane, and guards carried the man onboard like a sack of potatoes, he said.

On the second trip, he said grown men were crying out from the pain, but if anyone tried to stand up to stretch, guards barked at them to "sit the fuck down." He said he entered a sort of tunnel vision, where his whole world narrowed to surviving the pain one minute at a time, as the plane went from Alexandria to Baltimore, then Romania, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and finally Laos, where he was deported. He was shackled for approximately 72 hours. Flight data shows there was one more removal stop to Vietnam after he got off the plane, meaning those passengers were shackled for approximately 75 hours.

A similar turnaround to El Paso last December led to passengers being shackled for at least 82 hours, according to flight data and an attorney for several passengers on the plane. A former flight attendant on this trip told me the turnaround was caused by a mechanical problem with the aircraft.

Turnarounds in February and May may have also led to passengers being shackled for multiple days.

The Talon aircraft had not taken off again by the time this story published Wednesday morning. The migrant passengers, if they are still shackled, have been shackled for at least 31 hours.

Representatives for ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, Talon Air, and the government of Moldova did not respond to requests for comment about why the aircraft turned around. The aircraft may have lost its clearance to land in Moldova, or it may have been ordered to return by a judge, though no judge's orders like this were immediately apparent.

This story will be updated if more information becomes available, or if the plane takes off again.

Thank you for reading. I am a former Washington Post staff writer, and as far as I know, I’m the only journalist in America covering ICE flights full time. I am committed to keeping this reporting non-paywalled, but if you are able, please sign up for a paid subscription or send me a one-time tip, so I can continue this important work. –Gillian