FAA Probing Safety Incident Involving Trump’s Marine One in Washington

The aviation regulator said the incident ‘didn’t appear to be a dangerous close call.’

Marine One, carrying U.S. President Donald Trump, lands at the Wall Street Landing Zone in New York City on July 17, 2026. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Aug. 4 that it is investigating an air-traffic safety incident in Washington involving Marine One, the helicopter used to carry President Donald Trump for short trips.

“The FAA is investigating a safety incident involving Marine One but it didn’t appear to be a dangerous close call and the aircraft weren’t apparently converging,” the regulator said in a statement to multiple news outlets.

The incident occurred on Aug. 4 after the helicopter departed the White House, when air-traffic controllers allegedly failed to halt commercial flights around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as required by safety procedures, according to multiple reports.

The FAA told The Epoch Times via email that its preliminary review found there was a brief “loss of separation” between Marine One and a commercial flight.

“Based on our preliminary safety review, there was momentary loss of separation after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another,” the regulator said.

It noted that an air traffic controller was in communication with the pilots of both Marine One and the commercial flight during the incident, but that the president was never in danger.

Marine One is typically used to take the president on short trips, mainly to the White House or Andrews Air Force Base.

The FAA tightened rules for helicopter and aircraft operating near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after the Jan. 29, 2025, midair collision between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people.

After the crash, the FAA barred mixed helicopter and jet traffic around the airport. When Marine One is in flight around ⁠the airport, ​commercial traffic is halted. The FAA had also barred the use of visual separation, a practice in which the pilots are responsible for maintaining separation from other aircraft through visual observation to ensure efficient traffic flow.

The 2025 crash occurred as an American Airlines jet was on approach to the airport and collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River. All 64 passengers and crew aboard the plane and three military members in the helicopter were killed.

The American Airlines jet was flying a daily route from Kansas to the nation’s capital when it collided with the Black Hawk helicopter, which was on a training mission.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Jan. 29 revealed the findings of its year-long investigation into the incident, which found that multiple systematic failures at the FAA contributed to the crash.

The NTSB said the FAA’s decision to permit helicopter traffic to operate so close to commercial aircraft operations created an unacceptable risk.

“Number one, this helicopter route shouldn’t have been there in the first place. This was terrible design of the airspace,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the time.

The NTSB also faulted the FAA for failing to adequately review data that indicated the risk of a midair collision within the airspace around the Potomac and for allowing air-traffic controllers to rely on “visual separation.”

Jacob Burg, Tom Ozimek, and Reuters contributed to this report.