The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are reviewing an air traffic safety incident involving President Trump’s Marine One helicopter that occurred Tuesday afternoon while the president was aboard.
Marine One lifted off from the Ellipse near the White House around 2:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, carrying Trump on the first leg of a trip to Joint Base Andrews en route to the West Coast. Air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport did not halt commercial flights before the helicopter departed, as required by standard protocol.
“Based on our preliminary safety review, there was momentary loss of separation after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another,” an FAA spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “The air traffic controller was in contact with both the commercial pilot and Marine One pilot during the loss of separation.”
Standard procedure requires controllers to pause other air traffic three minutes before Marine One takes off. According to an air traffic communication recording provided by ATC.com, Marine One gave controllers the required three-minute notice, but a controller did not hear the transmission because someone else was speaking on the frequency at the same moment.
The result was a “momentary loss of separation” between Marine One and an American Airlines regional carrier flight taking off from the airport. FAA rules require commercial aircraft to maintain at least 1.5 miles of horizontal separation and 500 feet of vertical separation from helicopters operating near the airport. The FAA said the American Airlines flight did not come dangerously close to Marine One.
“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 said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the incident Tuesday night. The FAA said it is continuing to review what happened and “will implement any appropriate corrective actions based on our findings.”
The scrutiny around Reagan National’s airspace has intensified since January 2025, when an American Airlines passenger jet collided midair with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near the airport, killing everyone aboard both aircraft. The FAA issued the current halt-commercial-traffic protocol for military helicopter flyovers in the aftermath of that crash.
Tuesday’s incident marks the first known breach of that protocol involving the presidential helicopter since the rule took effect. The NTSB has not said whether it will issue a full investigation or a preliminary report timeline.
