The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are looking into why airport traffic wasn’t halted when Marine One departed the White House Tuesday afternoon with President Trump on board.
After the fatal midair collision at Washington’s Reagan National Airport between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet in January 2025, the Transportation Department prohibited non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan National Airport. Marine One and emergency flights are exempt from the ban, but when they do fly across the Potomac, a ground stop must occur at the airport.
On Tuesday, when the president was departing Washington for a trip to the West Coast, the Marine One pilot tried to contact the tower at DCA three times to alert air traffic controllers that the presidential helicopter was minutes away from liftoff. The tower at one point acknowledged the communication but asked for the pilot to repeat the message because it “was broken and unreadable.”
Marine One lifted off and appeared to catch the tower off guard. It was then that the tower alerted the helicopter that air traffic was still flowing at National Airport, and a plane was in the air.
“Marine One, you’ve got traffic rotating off runway one,” the air traffic controller said. Marine One acknowledged and held in place, and then notified the tower: “National Tower, Marine One — we’re going to be doing a delay.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported the incident. President Trump was never in danger, the FAA confirmed.
The FAA told CBS News that “there was momentary loss of separation after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another,” and said the FAA would continue to review the incident.
The Marine Corps called the flight “routine” and said that air traffic controllers had “approved the requested route and provided timely and appropriate traffic information.”