Commercial flights at Reagan National Airport were not halted as required under a policy set last year following a fatal collision
, when President Trump’s Marine One took off on Tuesday.
Marine One, carrying President Donald Trump, lifted off from the Ellipse near the White House at approximately 2:33 p.m. ET on Tuesday, August 4, en route to Joint Base Andrews
.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how an air traffic control team at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport failed to halt commercial departures on Tuesday as required under safety protocols built specifically to prevent a repeat of the 2025 Potomac River disaster — and is moving to convene a formal Safety Review Team to examine whether the breakdown was systemic
.
The incident marks another safety failure at the crowded airspace.
A review of air-traffic control audio indicates the pilots of Marine One told a Reagan National tower controller they were preparing to take off at least three times. The controller didn’t appear to acknowledge the transmission, and traffic at the airport continued
.
“Tower, do you copy. Marine One, three minutes to lift,” a pilot said at 2:31 p.m., the audio shows
.
The pilot called again, but the controller answered that the transmission was “broken and unreadable.”
A minute after Marine One departed, commercial traffic continued.
Envoy Air Flight 3742, an Embraer E170 leaving for Pensacola, Florida, departed Reagan National at approximately 2:34 p.m.
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
.
“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 FAA said
.
Republic Airways Flight 4700 was also affected.
A third aircraft, regional flight Republic 4700 from North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham international airport to Washington DC, was 3 miles from Reagan national at the time of the incident and was ordered to fly around before landing at 2:52pm
.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai told the 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.”
The Marine Corps also weighed in on the takeoff.
“There were no ‘close calls’ with the routine Marine One movement,” Tuesday, said Marine Corps spokesman, Capt. Jacob Sugg in an email. “Washington National Tower did not delay the helicopter crew, ask them to hold, or otherwise alter their flight profile. To the contrary, the ATC team approved the requested route and provided timely and appropriate traffic information.”
Safety protocols failed despite explicit requirements.
Under procedures enacted after last year’s fatal midair collision, air traffic control is required to receive at least three minutes of advance notice before Marine One departs so that commercial traffic at Reagan National — about 4 miles from the Ellipse — can be halted
.
That warning either was not given or was not acted upon
.
This comes after a deadly precedent set only last year.
There has been growing scrutiny of the extremely crowded airspace around Reagan National Airport, roughly 4 miles from the Ellipse, in the wake of a collision last year of a US Army Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, killing all 67 people on board
.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in January series of systemic failures by the FAA led to the collision, citing the agency decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes
.
Following that incident, the FAA imposed heavy restrictions on helicopters operating near the airport
.
After the crash, the FAA has barred mixed helicopter and jet traffic around the airport, and when Marine One is in flight around the airport, commercial traffic is typically halted
.
The new protocol depends on human coordination without automated backup.
The three-minute advance notice requirement is not a technical interlock or an automated system. It is a procedural protocol — a coordination step that depends on the Marine One crew reliably alerting the Reagan tower and on controllers reliably halting traffic in response. When it works, commercial departures pause and the skies around the Ellipse clear before the presidential helicopter becomes airborne. When it does not work — as on Tuesday — there is no automated backup
.
Two sources told Reuters the FAA is planning to convene a Safety Review Team into the incident
.