FAA Investigates Safety Incident Involving Helicopter Carrying Trump

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a safety incident involving a commercial airplane and Marine One, the helicopter carrying President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports.

Trump departed the White House in Marine One yesterday at 2:33 pm on his way to Joint Base Andrews. The president often helicopters from the White House to JBA, where he boards Air Force One for trips. One minute later, a commercial airplane took off from Reagan National Airport, Reuters reported.

At the time of the president’s departure, air traffic control hadn’t halted flights at Reagan National Airport per policy, sources told Reuters. The policy was put in place following a fatal collision between a military helicopter and commercial airplane last year.

“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.” Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, told the Caller in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the incident.

“The FAA is investigating a safety incident involving Marine One, but it didn’t appear to be a dangerous close call, and the aircraft weren’t apparently converging,” the FAA said in a statement to outlets.

UPDATE: Here's a second STATter911 camera showing a much wider view. This one shows the jet, reported to be Envoy ​Air 3742, above and to the west of Marine One as it follows the Potomac River north on it's departure from DCA Runway 1. https://t.co/zb3yhPyZNE pic.twitter.com/GmgYvBpYMh

The FAA requires aircraft to be separated by at least ​1.5 miles horizontally and 500 feet vertically around airports. Reuters reported sources believe Marine One and the plane did ​not maintain the required separation.

Both aircraft did land safely.

On Jan. 29, 2025, an American Airlines passenger jet collided with a military helicopter at Reagan National Airport. The commercial airplane was just moments away from landing. There were no survivors.

According to a Daily Caller review of public documents, Washington’s Reagan National Airport has suffered countless near misses between aircraft over the last few decades, many reported by pilots themselves, and some involving presidential movement. (RELATED: Transportation Secretary Accuses DOD Of Breaching Airspace Safety Rules In New Reagan Airport Incident)

In May 2017, a helicopter and airplane pilot reported “an unsafe situation involving VIP movements,” the Caller previously reported. It is not confirmed if the vice president, then Mike Pence, was on the helicopter at the time of the incident, but the report notes that the craft was en route to the Naval Observatory.

In one incident, an air traffic controller for the Potomac Consolidated TRACON wrote that they were holding airplanes in the sky during a presidential movement, but despite that, controllers at Reagan National launched two departures at the presidential aircraft. The aircraft were “less than a mile and no altitude, converging,” the report reads, adding that the towers ought to coordinate better during VIP movements.

“How is it we on approach are not allowed to run arrivals yet they have the authority to release airplanes right at presidential aircraft?” the controller at Potomac Consolidated TRACON vents in his report.

The FAA did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.