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Near-Miss Over Washington
A military helicopter carrying US President Donald Trump came within 0.8 miles of a passenger jet over Washington on Tuesday, after garbled communications with Ronald Reagan National Airport’s tower delayed air traffic controllers from clearing nearby traffic.
“came less than a mile from a passenger jet above Washington”
The incident occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m. as Trump was flying to Joint Base Andrews from the White House on the initial leg of a planned trip to Los Angeles, and Marine One took off from the Ellipse just south of the White House.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board said they were investigating how a commercial jet full of passengers got too close to the military helicopter, and the FAA described it as a “momentary loss of separation.”
The FAA said the president was “never in danger,” while a White House spokesman Kush Desai said the White House maintained “the utmost confidence” in Marine One pilots.
The episode followed a January 29, 2025 crash in the Washington airspace in which an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines passenger flight, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft.
Officials Say No Danger
The FAA said in a statement that, “based on our preliminary safety review,” there had been a “momentary loss of separation,” and it added that the president was “never in danger,” while a “review” continued.
Kush Desai told the Wall Street Journal that “Marine One flights are piloted by some of the best aviators in the world,” and he said “at no point was the President in harm’s way.”
The Guardian reported that air traffic controllers were believed to have mistakenly failed to halt commercial flights at Ronald Reagan National airport when Marine One took off from the White House.
The Guardian also reported that the aircraft involved in Tuesday’s incident was an Embraer E170 jet operated by Envoy Air as flight 3742 to Pensacola, and that Marine One took off at 2.33pm to take Trump to Joint Base Andrews.
The Guardian said the FAA planned to convene a safety review team, and it noted a third aircraft, Republic 4700 from North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham international airport, was ordered to fly around before landing at 2.52pm.
Rules, Reviews, and Fallout
The incident raised questions about why the passenger plane was allowed to depart while Marine One was airborne nearby, even though the FAA barred mixed helicopter and jet traffic around the airport after the January 2025 crash.
“the FAA barred mixed helicopter and jet traffic around the airport”
The Guardian said FAA rules implemented after last year’s tragedy require aircraft to remain separated by at least 1.5 miles horizontally and 500ft vertically around airports, and it reported that sources told Reuters it appeared Marine One and the plane did not maintain separation.
Aero-News.net said the FAA launched an inquiry and quoted the FAA statement that “there was momentary loss of separation after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another.”
Aero-News.net also reported that the NTSB announced it was opening an investigation into the incident, while the FAA said it was continuing to review the incident and would implement any appropriate corrective actions.
The Guardian said the episode occurred after the FAA imposed permanent restrictions on helicopter operations around Reagan national following the January 2025 collision, and it described the government’s prior admission of negligence in that crash that killed 67 people.
