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FAA investigates air ‘safety incident’ involving Trump’s helicopter

06 August 2026 00:07 (UTC +04:00)

An air “safety incident” in which Donald Trump’s Marine One helicopter came closer than permitted to another aircraft over Washington DC is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), APA reports citing The Guardian.

Air traffic controllers are believed to have mistakenly failed to halt commercial flights at Ronald Reagan National airport in northern Virginia on Tuesday afternoon when the military helicopter took off from the White House with the president on board.

A “loss of separation” incident occurred in which the helicopter and a recently departed passenger jet bound for Florida came closer to each other than regulations allow, a source told Reuters. The aircraft are not believed to have been on a collision course.

The FAA said in a statement that it was “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”.

Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, told the Wall Street Journal: “Marine One flights are piloted by some of the best aviators in the world, and at no point was the President in harm’s way.”