State Dept charters New England Patriots plane to evacuate Americans from Middle East

As the US works to evacuate Americans from the Middle East amid Operation Epic Fury, some leaving the region were greeted with the plane of a popular NFL team chartered by the State Department.

In a photo posted to social media on Friday by Department of State Assistant Secretary Dylan Johnson, Americans were seen boarding a New England Patriots plane, which sported the team’s logo and red, white, and blue stripes.

Johnson said the plane landed safely outside Washington, DC on Friday morning. The team did not arrange or pay for the flight.

A source told Fox News that the team "encourages" the charter company that runs the team’s planes "to use them for missions like this and other humanitarian and national interest type missions" when the team is not using them.

Per the Associated Press, this is the second State Department-chartered flight to land at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.

Since February 28, Johnson said that 24,000 American civilians have returned to the US from the Middle East. He said that figure did not include those who have relocated to other countries, or those who are still en route to the US.

The State Department has urged Americans seeking to return to the US from a number of Middle Eastern countries amid the military operation in Iran to fill out a crisis intake form "to request that we contact you with info on U.S. government-facilitated departure options as they become available." The Countries of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen have "do not travel" advisories from the department, while a number of other Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, have a "reconsider travel" advisory.