It’s not every day that you see a huge Egyptian military plane at BWI Airport in Maryland. However, yesterday just happened to feature this behemoth C-130 parked right opposite the car park. This got people wondering what an Egyptian plane was doing on US soil in the first place, and why it decided to visit Maryland of all places.

It turns out that if you’re savvy enough, then you can often spot various foreign planes flying in and out of US airports which isn’t as uncommon as it sounds. Sometimes, this often happens with naval ships too so it isn’t exclusive to aviation.

In brief, the USA often allows allied nations access to their land to do drills which makes sense from a security point of view. Usually, these planes and vehicles will have to get fuel at some point, which the plane may have been doing in the photo.

Nonetheless, it’s still a pretty shocking sight and probably isn’t one that you’ll see very often. Understandably, this can be a little confusing if you lack the context as well. However, for airport workers – this is very much the norm and is pretty much a monthly thing.

So, if you have a trivia quiz in the future that asks what Maryland has in common with Egypt, then this article just may get you a correct answer!