The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into a safety incident involving President Donald Trump’s helicopter and air-traffic control at a nearby airport.
When Marine One — the call sign for the aircraft carrying the president — took off from the White House on Tuesday, air-traffic controllers had not halted flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as required by federal aviation standards, The Wall Street Journal first reported.
The incident triggered what the FAA calls a loss of standard separation, potentially placing Marine One closer than the acceptable range between aircraft required by federal aviation rules: 1.5 miles horizontally and 500 feet vertically.
“Based on our preliminary safety review, there was momentary loss of separation after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another,” the FAA told NOTUS in an emailed statement. “The air traffic controller was in contact with both the commercial pilot and Marine One pilot during the loss of separation.”
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FAA officials are “continuing to review the incident and will implement any appropriate corrective actions” based on their evaluation.
“Marine One flights are piloted by some of the best aviators in the world, and at no point was the President in harm’s way,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote in a statement.
Federal aviation officials created new rules for air-traffic control safety after a deadly crash between an American Airlines passenger plane and a military Black Hawk helicopter killed 67 people on Jan. 29, 2025. The two aircraft collided midair and crashed into the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The National Transportation Safety Board found a collection of “systemic failures in airspace design, safety oversight, and risk management” by the FAA and the U.S. Army at fault for the midair collision. The NTSB made 33 safety recommendations to the FAA, which included defining a “close proximity encounter” and maintaining a public database to monitor these events.
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