The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched an investigation into an air safety incident in which Marine One, carrying President Donald Trump, came closer than permitted to a commercial passenger jet over Washington DC on Tuesday afternoon.
Air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan National Airport in northern Virginia allegedly failed to halt commercial flights when the military helicopter lifted off from the White House with the president on board. A source told Reuters that a “loss of separation” occurred, meaning the helicopter and a recently departed passenger jet bound for Florida were closer than regulations allow. The aircraft were not believed to be on a collision course.
Incident details
The FAA said in a statement that it was “investigating a safety incident involving Marine One,” but added that it did not appear to be a dangerous close call and the aircraft were not apparently converging. The incident involved an Embraer E170 jet operated by Envoy Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, as flight 3742 to Pensacola.
Tracking website FlightAware showed the Envoy jet left its gate at Reagan National at 2:18 pm on Tuesday, 34 minutes later than scheduled, and was airborne at 2:34 pm. Marine One took off from the Ellipse near the White House at 2:33 pm to transport Trump to Joint Base Andrews for a flight to Los Angeles, according to a pool report.
Post-collision rules
The incident comes after the FAA tightened proximity rules following the January 2025 collision between a commercial airliner and an army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington DC, which killed 67 people. The government eventually admitted negligence in what was the deadliest crash on US soil in more than two decades.
FAA rules implemented after the tragedy require aircraft to remain separated by at least 1.5 miles horizontally and 500 feet vertically around airports. Sources told Reuters that Marine One and the plane did not maintain separation, though they were not converging.
No disruption to flights
Marine One and the Envoy jet continued their journeys without incident, with the Embraer landing in Pensacola at 3:33 pm CT after a flight of 2 hours and 16 minutes. A third aircraft, regional flight Republic 4700 from Raleigh-Durham to Washington DC, was 3 miles from Reagan National at the time and was ordered to fly around before landing at 2:52 pm, according to one source and confirmed by FlightAware.
FAA safety review
Reuters learned from anonymous sources that the FAA planned to convene a safety review team to investigate the incident. The FAA has imposed permanent restrictions on helicopter operations around Reagan National following last year’s mid-air collision. The US government conceded in December in a response to a lawsuit filed by a victim’s family that failures of the FAA and army played a role in the crash.
“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident,” the government said. The National Transportation Safety Board said in January that a series of systemic failures by the FAA led to the collision, citing its decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes.
Since then, the FAA has banned mixed helicopter and jet traffic around the airport, and commercial traffic is typically halted when Marine One is in flight near the airport. The Guardian has contacted the White House and American Airlines for comment.
