A plane carrying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was forced into an emergency landing Wednesday after losing an engine mid-flight.
The Coast Guard C-37A Gulfstream V jet, designated C101, was transporting Mullin, 47, from Georgia to Washington, D.C., when the right engine failed. The aircraft diverted to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia with 14 people and roughly 2.5 hours of fuel remaining.
“We just lost our right engine and would like to declare an emergency and immediate landing at DCA,” the pilot told the airport’s control tower, according to an audio recording of the exchange.
Mullin described the landing on X, praising the flight crew’s composure under pressure.
“The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single-engine landing feel routine,” he wrote. “No panic, just straight professionalism.”
He added a striking detail about the crew’s own experience: “After we landed, the pilots told me that was a first for them! We could not have been in better hands.”
The aircraft involved belongs to a fleet that DHS itself flagged as dangerously aged. In 2025, the agency assessed that the C101 was more than 20 years old, past Gulfstream’s designated service life, and had exceeded safe operational usage hours for corporate aircraft.
“Much like the US Coast Guard’s ships that are well beyond their service life and safe operational usage, Coast Guard’s aircraft are, too,” then-DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said at the time. “The Trump Administration is taking action to restore our Nation’s finest maritime Armed Service to a capable fighting force.”
The emergency landing reignites scrutiny over aircraft procurement decisions at DHS. Former Secretary Kristi Noem, who preceded Mullin, faced congressional backlash last year for purchasing two luxury Gulfstream G700 private jets for the Coast Guard. The acquisition cost between $172 million and $200 million, far exceeding her initial $50 million request.
In May 2025, Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pressed the department on why upgrading executive aircraft took priority over modernizing Coast Guard search-and-rescue planes.
“We know President Trump has set a high bar for wasteful luxury travel by government officials with his unconstitutional attempt to personally acquire a $400 million jet from a foreign government,” the pair wrote in a letter to Noem. “That does not mean members of his Cabinet must follow suit. Your desire to travel in luxury should not eclipse the need for USCG service members to fly safely and conduct lifesaving missions.”
DHS oversees the Coast Guard, placing Mullin directly in the chain of command for the service whose aging equipment forced his own emergency landing.
Mullin, a former U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, was appointed to lead DHS earlier this year. The incident marks an unusual convergence of his policy responsibilities and personal experience as a passenger.