Air visitors controllers in Washington and the pilots of President Donald Trump’s helicopter met to debate communication points one week earlier than a jet was allowed to take off simply as Marine One left the White Home, federal investigators mentioned Thursday.
Controllers reported not receiving the usual three-minute warning name forward of Marine One flights and each side agreed to another in these situations — however that plan to relay the radio name via another person was additionally unsuccessful on the day of the Aug. 4 incident close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board’s preliminary report reveals.
Having each the jet and helicopter within the air on the identical time appeared to violate security procedures put in place after final 12 months’s midair collision close to the busy airport that killed 67 individuals, however officers burdened that the president was by no means in peril. The Pentagon additionally has a longstanding settlement with the Federal Aviation Administration to supply controllers with a three-minute warning earlier than the president’s helicopter takes off that predates final 12 months’s crash.
The NTSB mentioned recordings from the tower confirmed that the controllers by no means heard the calls from Marine One’s pilot that day warning that the helicopter was on the brink of take off, however separate recordings posted by ATC.com present the helicopter did make these calls.
The helicopter pilots tried to relay their three-minute name via the helicopter facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, however that was additionally unsuccessful.
The FAA determined after an airliner collided with an Military Black Hawk helicopter on Jan. 29, 2025, that every one takeoffs and landings on the airport can be halted anytime a helicopter passes by on a conflicting route. The airspace close to the White Home and Reagan is closely congested with navy and business plane.
The FAA has acknowledged that the helicopter and airliner briefly acquired too shut earlier than the 2 plane began to maneuver away from one another. The airplane shortly climbed above the helicopter after Marine One’s pilots noticed the airplane and paused till it safely left the world.
The NTSB mentioned preliminary estimates present the helicopter and airplane had been simply over 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometers) aside laterally and about 700 ft (215 meters) aside vertically at their closest. The crew of the Envoy Air flight instructed investigators they obtained a visitors warning from their collision avoidance system proper after they took off, however they by no means noticed the helicopter.
The official FAA recordings from the tower at Reagan didn’t embody the warnings that Marine One was on the brink of head to Andrews Air Drive Base with the president aboard that day.
A recording posted by ATC.com confirmed the Marine One pilot telling the tower that the helicopter was “three minutes to life” identical to the 2013 settlement between the FAA and the navy requires. However the controller appeared shocked a couple of minutes later when the helicopter took off.
“Uh, Marine One, you mentioned, uh, you’re continuing as briefed?” the controller requested earlier than giving the helicopter instructions and commenting, “OK, no three minutes, roger, proceed as briefed.”
After the controller warned the helicopter in regards to the airplane taking off, the Marine One pilot mentioned he noticed the visitors and declared, “We’ll be doing a momentary delay.”
After final 12 months’s midair collision, it grew to become clear that poor communication between air visitors controllers and the navy had been a longstanding problem. Throughout a congressional listening to, it got here out {that a} hotline connecting the Pentagon to the tower at Reagan hadn’t been working for greater than three years, and the FAA hadn’t even realized it.
The NTSB mentioned that after this incident involving Marine One, FAA technicians decided that there wasn’t ample line of sight between the radio receiver on the airport and the placement the place the helicopter takes off on the White Home. So these radios had been moved from the neighborhood the place they’d been situated to the highest of the tower at Reagan. Subsequent checks confirmed the radios working nicely after that change.
