Trump's mid-air scare caught on camera: Moment passenger plane flew above his Marine One chopper
A video showing a military helicopter carrying US President Donald Trump flying within less than a mile of a passenger aircraft over Washington in the United States on Tuesday has gone viral on social media.
The White House, however, has said that the president was never at risk.
Trump’s Marine One flew within less than a mile of a commercial aircraft over the US capital as the helicopter was approaching nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Tuesday afternoon, The New York Times reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
Video shows plane flying above Trump’s chopper
Marine One carrying the president departed from the White House while commercial flights were still operating at the airport, despite safety protocols requiring them to be paused, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Videos of the incident have now gone viral on social media. In one of the videos, aerial footage of the Washington DC airspace shows a commercial plane passing overhead just moments before Marine One flew through the same area.
HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the visuals.
Probe launched
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it is “investigating a reported loss of separation event between Marine One and a commercial aircraft departing DCA (Washington National Airport) that occurred on August 4.”
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, told AFP, “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 US aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), said “the air traffic controller was in contact with both the commercial pilot and Marine One pilot during the loss of separation.”
“The President was never in danger. We are continuing to review the incident and will implement any appropriate corrective actions based on our findings,” it added.
What could have led to the incident?
Officials from the FAA, quoted by The Wall Street Journal, said the incident may have involved what is known as a loss of standard separation, an air traffic control rule designed to keep aircraft safely apart.
Under federal regulations, aircraft must remain at least 1.5 miles apart horizontally and 500 feet apart vertically in such situations.
The New York Times reported that the incident may have occurred after air traffic controllers failed to clear nearby aircraft in time.
Before Marine One took off, its crew made three attempts to inform controllers at the National Airport control tower that the helicopter was three minutes away from departure, the report said citing audio recordings posted on ATC.com. The transmissions appeared to have gone unheard by the controller, after which the helicopter continued with its departure.