Key takeaways:
- The FAA said Marine One experienced “a momentary loss of separation” with another aircraft near Reagan National Airport, but President Trump was not in danger.
- Commercial traffic is supposed to be halted when Marine One crosses the Potomac under restrictions adopted after a January 2025 crash that killed 67 people.
- Reuters reported that Envoy Air flight 3742 was the aircraft involved and that another flight, Republic 4700, was rerouted as a precaution.
Federal investigators are reviewing why commercial flights were not paused at Washington’s Reagan National Airport when Marine One lifted off with President Donald Trump aboard, a lapse that briefly brought the presidential helicopter too close to an aircraft taking off from the airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration said its preliminary safety review of Tuesday’s incident found “a momentary loss of separation, after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another.” The agency said Trump was not in danger.
The National Transportation Safety Board also said it would investigate the incident.
The episode occurred as Trump was leaving Washington for a West Coast trip. Marine One departed from the Ellipse near the White House at about 2:33 p.m. local time, according to a White House pool report cited by Al Jazeera, and was headed to Joint Base Andrews before the president’s trip to Los Angeles.
Under restrictions adopted after a deadly January 2025 collision near Reagan National, commercial airport traffic is supposed to be halted when Marine One or other exempt helicopters cross the Potomac River. That crash, involving an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, killed 67 people. The Transportation Department later prohibited non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan National; Marine One and emergency flights are exempt, but a ground stop is required when they operate in that corridor.
On Tuesday, according to CBS News, the Marine One pilot tried three times to contact the Reagan National tower to alert air traffic controllers that the helicopter was minutes from liftoff. At one point, the tower acknowledged the transmission but asked the pilot to repeat it because it “was broken and unreadable.”
Marine One then lifted off. The tower soon warned that airport traffic was still moving.
“Marine One, you’ve got traffic rotating off runway one,” an air traffic controller said, according to CBS News. Marine One acknowledged the warning, held in place and told the tower: “National Tower, Marine One — we’re going to be doing a delay.”
The FAA said an air traffic controller remained in contact with both pilots throughout the incident. The agency said it would continue reviewing what happened.
Reuters, cited by Al Jazeera, reported that two people familiar with the matter said air traffic controllers had not paused commercial departures at Reagan National as required under the post-crash policy. A source told Reuters that the aircraft involved was Envoy Air flight 3742, a regional jet operated on behalf of American Airlines and bound for Pensacola, Florida. Reuters also reported that a second flight, Republic 4700, was separately rerouted as a precaution after coming within three miles of the airport.
The FAA has not confirmed the identity of the aircraft involved, according to Al Jazeera. Both aircraft landed safely.
The Marine Corps described Marine One’s flight as “routine” and said air traffic controllers had “approved the requested route and provided timely and appropriate traffic information.”
The incident renews scrutiny of procedures at Reagan National, where the 2025 collision led to permanent restrictions on mixed helicopter and commercial traffic and, in March, a ban on using visual-only separation for helicopters near major U.S. airports, Al Jazeera reported.
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