American aviation regulators and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating an air traffic safety incident involving the presidential helicopter, Marine One, which was carrying President Donald Trump at the time, officials reported on Wednesday.
A statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) indicated the event occurred around 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday. The aircraft departed from the Ellipse near the White House en route to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, marking the first leg of the president's journey to the West Coast.
According to officials, the military helicopter's departure did not trigger a standard safety protocol to temporarily halt commercial flights at the nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Standard operating procedure requires air traffic controllers to pause all other air traffic for three minutes before Marine One's scheduled takeoff.
An audio recording of air traffic communications, provided by the aviation website ATC.com, reveals that Marine One notified the control tower of its impending departure three minutes early, but the controller did not receive the message because another person was talking on the same frequency.
The White House issued a statement on Wednesday, stating: "The pilots flying Marine One are among the best in the world, and the president was never in any danger."
The FAA stated on Wednesday that preliminary information suggests the incident resulted in a "brief loss of separation." At the time, a regional American Airlines jet was departing from the airport, and the distance between the two aircraft fell below the required safety margins.
The FAA mandates that any helicopter flying near Reagan National Airport must maintain a minimum horizontal separation of 1.5 miles and a vertical separation of 500 feet from commercial airliners. The agency emphasized that the American Airlines regional jet was never in dangerous proximity to Marine One.
"According to the preliminary safety review, the two aircraft briefly experienced a reduction in the required separation, after which the two planes continued to move away from each other," the FAA stated. "During the loss of separation, controllers maintained communication with both the commercial pilot and the Marine One crew."
The FAA confirmed that the investigation is ongoing and that "any necessary corrective actions will be implemented based on the findings."
Comments