derekcz

SCP-XXXX in its original livery

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Thaumiel

Special Containment Procedures: When not in use, SCP-XXXX is to be stored in a hangar of Site-54 where it is regularly inspected and maintained, according to the standard procedures for its type.
SCP-XXXX should constantly be kept fueled at at least 50% capacity and flown at least once a week, however it is encouraged that the aircraft is used by the Foundation anytime when necessary.
Any personnel with security clearance level 2 or higher can request the use of SCP-XXXX. These requests must be approved by doctor Zimmerman, but due to the nature of SCP-XXXX and its potential use by the Foundation it is usually not advised to request access for personal or recreational use.
While no piloting skills are necessary to operate SCP-XXXX, it is advised to always have someone with flying experience on-board.
Its hangar should always be kept open, and full access to the runway should be ensured.
Should SCP-XXXX leave containment, fighter escorts will be dispatched to closely monitor it but restrain from any offensive action unless completely necessary. SCP-XXXX will usually return to its hangar after a few hours.

Description: SCP-XXXX is an Airbus A380-841, visually identical to other aircraft of the type, painted in a generic red and white livery without any identifying marks. It originally came in a configuration with 441 seats, but since its service for the Foundation ███ seats were removed and the resulting space converted to carry cargo. Several cargo sections were further converted to mobile containment units that can be used to transport other SCPs.

Many samples of SCP-XXXX were examined, and all results point to the materials used in its construction to be completely ordinary and no different from other aircraft of its type. It is currently unknown what gives the aircraft its anomalous behavior.
Experiments to determine how much of SCP-XXXX can be interchanged with parts from non-anomalous aircraft are pending.

The aircraft is sentient, but occasionally exhibits sapient traits such as basic emotion or acts of self-preservation.
While the aircraft seems to posses no form of direct communication, it has shown the ability to fully understand English, French, German, and Malay, as long as it is spoken inside the cockpit, into the cabin's intercom, or via the radio (when active).
The aircraft can react to questions by simple activities such as flashing lights in the cockpit or cabin, allowing personnel to have A "conversation" with it using techniques such as Morse code.
When asked why it can't simply use its computer screens to display full paragraphs of text, it "answered" that "it's against the rules".

Normally, the aircraft is in an inactive state, but as soon as anyone on-board verbally addresses it with the intention to fly somewhere, its cockpit instruments will activate.
The aircraft will then wait for a verbal confirmation of takeoff, either from personnel inside or via air traffic control.
Once the confirmation is received, the aircraft will go through the taxi and takeoff procedure all by itself, obeying any further instructions from the "pilots" or ATC.
It has been observed to understand the standard ATC vocabulary, but can also be talked to in a more "casual" manner.

The aircraft will not obey any order that endangers it, its passengers, or anyone else in the air or on the ground.
Because the aircraft itself can not talk to air traffic control, there must usually be at least one person handling the communication when flying through civilian airspace. This restriction can be overcome by filing the flight as "experimental military" or "governmental" with the controllers.

It is not currently known what specific part of the aircraft provides the sentience.
Likewise, it is unknown what powers the sentient part of the aircraft (See Experiment XXXX-P1, P2 and V).
When not in use for an extended period of time (about 2-3 weeks), the aircraft may activate and take off by itself without any crew on-board. When this happens, the Foundation contacts the local Air Force and orders a fighter escort of SCP-XXXX. A cover story given to the Air Force is that SCP-XXXX is an advanced drone that is being tested on Site-54, and that they are clear to engage it should it "malfunction" and threaten civilian or geopolitical safety.
SCP-XXXX usually only flies in areas with low air traffic and obeys all airspace restrictions. Its destination varies, but it usually returns to containment in a few hours.
The current standing theory about this behavior is that SCP-XXXX gets "bored", however sometimes other events can provoke a takeoff (See Autonomous Activity Log).

Discovery: SCP-XXXX was delivered to Singapore Airlines on 12/10/2007 under the registration "9V-SKA". Throughout its entire operational life under the airline, the aircraft exhibited no anomalous properties.

The aircraft first drew interest of the Foundation on ██ November 2018, when during its ferry flight to the scrapyard the pilots reported loss of control. The aircraft's autopilot assumed a heading widely different from its filed flight path, which happened to intersect the restricted airspace around Area ███. Three █████ Air Force fighter jets were dispatched at the order of the Foundation to intercept the aircraft and terminate it should it pose any sign of threat to Area ███.
The fighter pilots reported visual contact with all three crew members present on the airliner; two pilots and one flight engineer. Using various hand signals, they communicated their loss of control and radio. This information was interpreted as a remote hijacking of the aircraft, and the fighters were ordered to shoot it down.

One of the fighters assumed firing position behind the airliner and attempted to achieve missile lock. As soon its radar targeting system was activated, the airliner began a sharp left turn while also rapidly increasing its altitude, as if it was trying to avoid the restricted airspace.
The termination was set on hold, and the fighters returned to their previous intercept position.
Once the airliner reached an altitude of 40 thousand feet, it leveled out and assumed a new heading, roughly in the direction of ██████, Germany.
The local air traffic control operators noticed that the aircraft set its squawk[1] code to 7700, indicating that it lost radio and is ready to follow its escort.

After this information was relayed to the fighters, they took position in front of the airliner and directed it towards the ██████ Airport where it safely landed.
Once the airliner came to a stop, the airport was closed and ground crew with air stairs was dispatched. All three crew members left the aircraft uninjured.
At this point, the Foundation withdrew its involvement to allow the local aviation authorities handle the hijacking attempt. The aircraft's engines were detached due to safety concerns and it was towed into parking.

A few days later, it was decided that the aircraft will be completely dismantled on-site to not risk any further ferry flights. However, when the tug vehicle approached the aircraft, the aircraft appeared to silently "back up" by itself, as if it was trying to avoid being towed away. This action was immediately deemed anomalous, given that the aircraft should have no means of propulsion.
After this event, the Foundation temporarily replaced the ██████ Airport staff while the airport itself remained closed. A cover story about a possible bomb threat on the aircraft was disseminated.
Shortly after research of the aircraft's anomalous properties started, the Foundation staff was able to "convince" it to relocate to Site-54 where it is currently stationed (see Experiment XXXX-A).

Experiments:

Experiment XXXX-A:
Doctor Zimmerman and his usual team were assigned to evaluate SCP-XXXX's anomalous properties. After witnessing SCP-XXXX actively avoiding the tug vehicle, doctor Zimmerman requested access to a radio tuned to the last known frequency in use by SCP-XXXX. He then proceeded to address the aircraft by its last call sign and got it to react to his questions by moving either forwards or backwards.
After several minutes of "conversation", doctor Zimmerman got SCP-XXXX to agree to be towed to a nearby hangar where its engines would be reconnected, after which it was to relocate to Site-54.
SCP-XXXX then followed Foundation staff's instructions and was relocated without complications.

Experiment XXXX-P1:
On ██/██/2018, SCP-XXXX was informed that the researches will temporarily remove most of its cockpit instruments. SCP-XXXX agreed, only after it was assured that it will be fully reassembled in a week.
All instruments of SCP-XXXX were closely inspected, but didn't show any differences from standard Airbus A380 instrumentation. While without the instruments, SCP-XXXX was shown to still be fully sentient and able to interact with the researchers.
SCP-XXXX's cockpit was then reassembled using the standard instruments, after which it was able to fully use them and showed no difference in behavior. SCP-XXXX's original instruments, now labeled SCP-XXXX-1, are still pending further investigation. SCP-XXXX was made aware of the change and showed no disagreement.

Experiment XXXX-P2:
On ██/██/2019, SCP-XXXX was informed that its entire left wing will be temporarily removed. Once again, SCP-XXXX showed hesitation to agree, but eventually it gave in. Once the procedure was complete, SCP-XXXX ceased all sentient activity. The wing was quickly reattached due to fear of damaging SCP-XXXX, but once it was reverted to the previous state SCP-XXXX regained its anomalous properties.
The experiment was then repeated with the right wing, with the exact same outcome.

Experiment XXXX-V:
On ██/██/2019, SCP-XXXX was informed that all of its batteries and electric systems will be temporarily disconnected. SCP-XXXX agreed immediately, showing that the Foundation has gained its trust since first containment.
During its "power-down" state, a group of researchers told SCP-XXXX about its next flight destination. Once SCP-XXXX was powered up again, it immediately started plotting a flight path to that destination, showing that even when all electronic systems are offline, SCP-XXXX is still sentient.

Autonomous Activity Log:

Event #1
Date: ██/11/2018
SCP-XXXX started taxiing around Site-54's airfield and moved from its parking spot into the nearest empty hangar. It was later found out that a staff member working on SCP-XXXX left one of the cockpit windows open, therefore when it started to rain SCP-XXXX acted to prevent water damage to the cockpit interior.

Event #2
Date: ██/12/2018
After a three week period of not flying, SCP-XXXX took off by itself at midnight. It conducted three low passes above the runway with its gear up, and then proceeded to fly to ██████, Czech Republic, and back. At no point did it violate any airspace restriction, and it kept its altitude above 42 thousand feet. Due to the unexpected nature of the event, SCP-XXXX had no aircraft escorting it during the entire duration of the flight.
As a result, three fighters will now be permanently on standby in █████████, just ███km away from Site-54.

Event #3
Date: 14/02/2019
In the evening, SCP-XXXX took off and flown to the relatively nearby █████████ Airfield where other aircraft of its type were being disassembled. Its fighter escorts observed it circling the airfield multiple times at a very slow speed, after which it returned to containment. SCP-XXXX was then reported as being "unusually unresponsive" for a period of several days.

Event #4
Date: ██/03/2019
During the containment breach of SCP-███, SCP-XXXX took off by itself and began flying in a search pattern around Area ███. At one point, SCP-XXXX started flying in circles around a nearby lake. SCP teams were dispatched to the location and discovered and contained SCP-███. After SCP-XXXX returned to its own containment, it was shown gratitude for its help, but advised to not involve itself in any other containment breach events due to concerns about its own safety.

Event #5
Date: ██/05/2019
SCP-XXXX took off and flown to the town of ██████, Ukraine, where the Antonov 225 heavy cargo aircraft was stationed. It landed on the runway and proceeded to taxi near the Antonov 225's hangar. SCP-XXXX remained in place for several hours, without any signs of activity, after which it returned to containment.
Local residents were given small doses of Class B amnestics. Some photos from the event were posted by the bystanders on the Internet, but they have been disregarded as fake by the general population.
SCP-XXXX did not reveal its reasoning behind its flight. It has been theorized by doctor ██████ that based on events #3 and #5, SCP-XXXX may feel affection or sympathy towards other, non-sentient aircraft.
Doctor ██████'s proposal to "blow up a 737 in front of SCP-XXXX" has been rejected by the Foundation.

Event #6
Date: 11/11/2019
Before this event, SCP-XXXX requested its fuel tanks to be filled to maximum. It did not reveal its intentions, but the Foundation personnel cooperated given how loyal and useful SCP-XXXX has been.
On ██:██ UTC, SCP-XXXX took of and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean, where it entered a holding pattern roughly ███km from the coast of Florida.
It stayed in the pattern for ██ hours, its escorts had to change shifts twice due to them running low on fuel. After it was done, SCP-XXXX returned to containment with remarkably little fuel left.
When asked about the purpose of the flight, SCP-XXXX reported that it wanted to "watch the rocket".
How SCP-XXXX gained information about the rocket launch schedule of ██████, or how SCP-XXXX can even watch such an event, is still unknown.

Event #7
Date: ██/11/2019
During transportation of SCP-████ inside SCP-XXXX, a containment breach occurred, resulting in the deaths of all personnel aboard SCP-XXXX. To keep SCP-████ from getting out of control, SCP-XXXX started to increase its speed and altitude. When it reached almost 60 thousand feet, it depressurized its cabin and rendered SCP-████ inert.
Upon landing, SCP-████ was contained. Even though the breach was caused by poor construction work of the Foundation, SCP-XXXX expressed feelings of guilt over the personnel deaths and refused to take flight or leave its hangar for six weeks even after being ordered to do so.

[1] A variable code set by the pilot in case of emergency, or simply to indicate the intentions of the aircraft