Controllers Warned Marine One Crew Before Near Miss

Air traffic controllers in Washington and the pilots of President Donald Trump's helicopter met one week before an Aug. 4 safety incident to hash out communication problems between them, federal investigators said Thursday.

The workaround they agreed on failed during the incident, when a commercial jet was cleared to take off from Reagan National Airport just as Marine One lifted off from the White House with Trump aboard.

At their closest, the two aircraft were just over 0.8 mile apart laterally and about 700 feet apart vertically, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

What Investigators Found

Tower recordings did not capture Marine One's three-minute warning call, though a separate recording indicates the pilot made the transmission, investigators said.

The NTSB also found that a Pentagon-to-tower hotline had been inoperable for more than three years without the FAA knowing.

Investigators said the temporary relocation of Marine One's landing zone because of White House construction was a factor in the incident, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Why It Matters

FAA rules adopted after the January 2025 crash require all takeoffs and landings at Reagan National to stop when a helicopter is flying a conflicting route. That protocol was not followed on Aug. 4.