(CNN) — The White House is working to quickly upgrade the Qatari-donated jet that has newly started serving as Air Force One, a development that comes after administration officials internally discussed the need for President Donald Trump to avoid flying it in high-threat areas, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The extent of the required upgrades, which will be made later this fall, remains unclear. But the two sources said that before Trump traveled on the jet to Turkey earlier this month, officials had discussed the president not traveling on the newly refurbished jet to areas that could pose a higher risk to him, specifically Israel, amid the monthslong war with Iran.
Trump, who has lavished praise on the retrofitted plane, nevertheless flew it to Turkey earlier this month after an initial assessment by top officials deemed it safe, the sources said.
Officials later realized that clearing it for use on that trip was a mistake, one of the sources said. The other source noted that security assessments frequently change.
Trump has appeared to publicly acknowledge that the plane needs additional security enhancements, telling reporters Sunday that it would soon be “maxed out.” He added that it would “take about a month” to make the planned changes — a timeline experts say isn’t enough to make significant improvements.
When he left Turkey, Trump opted to take the older presidential plane rather than the newer jet, spurring scrutiny of its security deficiencies. Trump insisted at the time that the swap was so US service members at a UK air base could see the plane, not due to a lack of security measures. But two sources familiar with the matter previously told CNN the newer plane did not possess the same capabilities to ensure the president’s safety in international settings.
The subsequent reporting on safety concerns regarding the plane infuriated the president, spurring an extraordinary leak investigation that included subpoenaing the New York Times reporters who first reported on the issue. Officials at the White House has were also asked to turn over their phones as part of the probe.
On Monday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the new jet was slated to undergo more work, even as she maintained that it was “perfectly safe.”
“The new Air Force One is perfectly safe for the President’s travels, but will receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall which will take approximately one month to complete,” she said in a statement.
Trump is still expected to use the jet for domestic trips — and potentially even some international travel — before the upgrades, one of the sources familiar with the matter said, citing assessments that deemed it safe to take to low-risk destinations. That could include flying it to Ireland, where he’s considering a visit in September.
Trump has also suggested he could take the new jet to China later this year, amid discussions about a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. But those plans are likely to hinge on completing all the upgrades in one month — an accelerated timeline that prompted immediate skepticism from aviation experts.
Richard Aboulafia, a managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, told CNN that no significant improvement could reasonably be made to a plane in such a short period of time.
“But for 30 days there are a number of different pilot drink holder options they might want to pursue,” he joked.
The military took possession of the jet from Qatar last year, and the work that was done on it took a little over a year to complete.
“The amount of time they originally had was useful for scanning for security weaknesses and installing some basic equipment for communications and some limited level of self-protection,” said Aboulafia, who has served as an aviation analyst and consultant since 1988. “Getting up to the standards of the old Air Force One — that’s a couple years.”
The donated jet is meant to serve as a “bridge” plane to fill the role of Air Force One until Boeing finishes outfitting two new planes, which are slated for delivery in 2028. Boeing has spent nearly a decade designing and upgrading the two 747s.
“This is the most complex twin aisle aircraft we have ever done,” Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg told CNBC Monday. “We are through the design phase and building the airplanes back up. So we are confident we know what we’ve got in front of us.”
Since Qatar gifted Trump the $400 million jet, its design and retrofitting has taken on outsized personal importance for the president, whose term would be mostly over by the time the new other planes are delivered, assuming the project remains on track. In the meantime, the White House roundly dismissed legal, ethical and national security questions surrounding its decision to accept the plane.
Trump hand-picked much of the interior details of the plane, sources told CNN, down to the flooring in each individual area. When he publicly unveiled the jet, he deemed it “the world’s most luxurious plane.”
“Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary,” Trump said ahead of its inaugural flight earlier this month, as he took reporters on a tour of its gold-accented cabin. “They spent top dollars.”
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