FAA says Trump’s Marine One briefly flew too close to passenger jet
Air traffic controllers had failed to pause commercial flights during Marine One’s departure, sources say.
On Tuesday, a military helicopter carrying President Donald Trump momentarily came too close to a passenger jet departing Reagan Washington National Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that President Trump was not in danger during the incident, which raised serious questions about why the commercial plane was allowed to depart while Marine One was nearby.
The FAA had imposed restrictions on mixed helicopter and jet traffic around the airport following a fatal crash between a military helicopter and a commercial jet in January 2025 that killed 67 people. According to sources, the FAA had not halted commercial flights at Reagan National as required by the new policy last year. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the incident, and the FAA plans to convene a safety review team.
The Embraer E170 regional jet, Envoy Air 3742, which was bound for Pensacola, Florida, departed just after the helicopter took off. Another regional flight, Republic 4700, was 4.8km from Reagan during the incident and was diverted due to caution. The FAA had imposed permanent restrictions after the January 2025 crash and required at least three minutes' notice before Marine One departs to halt traffic from Reagan.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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