Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
White House construction led to radio communication problems that played a role in an incident earlier this month in which air traffic controllers cleared an airline jet for take-off just as President Donald Trump’s helicopter, Marine One, lifted off, federal investigators said on Thursday. A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board said the controllers did not hear calls warning that the helicopter was preparing to depart on August 4.
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The report said the incident near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport also appeared to go against safety steps introduced after a 2025 midair crash near the airport that killed 67 people. Officials, however, stressed that the president was never in danger.
According to the NTSB, air traffic controllers and Marine One pilots had met the week before the incident to discuss problems with controllers not receiving the standard three-minute warning ahead of Marine One flights. They agreed to relay radio calls through another party if the problem happened again, but that also failed on the day of the incident. Recordings from the tower showed controllers never heard the Marine One pilot’s warning calls, though separate recordings posted by ATC.com showed the helicopter did make those calls.
The helicopter pilots also tried to pass on their three-minute warning through the helicopter facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, but that effort was unsuccessful as well.
Investigators later found that Marine One had difficulty communicating with the tower at times because the helicopter had shifted to a new location during White House construction, affecting the radio link. The FAA then moved the radio receiver from a neighbourhood near the airport to the top of the tower at Reagan to address the problem.
The FAA said it took immediate action after the incident by moving the antenna “to improve communications” between the airport and Marine One pilots. The White House did not immediately respond to the preliminary report.
The FAA had decided after an airliner collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on January 29, 2025, that all take-offs and landings at the airport would be stopped whenever a helicopter passed by on a conflicting route. The airspace near the White House and Reagan is heavily congested with military and commercial aircraft.
The Pentagon also has a longstanding agreement with the FAA, dating back to 2013, to give controllers a three-minute warning before the president’s helicopter takes off.
A recording posted by ATC.com showed the Marine One pilot telling the tower that the helicopter was “three minutes to lift”, but the controller appeared surprised when it took off. “Uh, Marine One, you said, uh, you’re proceeding as briefed?” the controller asked before giving directions and saying, “OK, no three minutes, roger, proceed as briefed.” After the controller warned the helicopter about the plane taking off, the Marine One pilot replied that he saw the traffic and said, “We’ll be doing a momentary delay.”
The FAA has said the helicopter and airliner briefly got too close before both aircraft moved away from each other. The plane quickly climbed above the helicopter after Marine One’s pilots saw it and paused until it had safely left the area. The NTSB said preliminary estimates showed the two aircraft were just over 0.8 mile apart laterally and about 700 feet apart vertically at their closest. The Envoy Air crew told investigators they received a traffic warning from their collision avoidance system shortly after take-off, but did not see the helicopter.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the issue had not been traced to its cause earlier despite previous communication problems. “Even though they were aware of some previous communications issues, they never got at the root cause,” he said. Guzzetti, a former crash investigator with both the NTSB and FAA, also said the controller was not at fault. “In this case, the controller did absolutely nothing wrong.
He did not receive the transmission saying that they were three minutes away from taking off. So he had no reason to hold the airplane that was lining up and waiting,” he said. He added that once controllers realised the helicopter was taking off, they quickly warned the pilots and ordered another aircraft approaching Reagan to abort its landing and circle.
The NTSB said the Marine One incident underscored continuing communication issues involving military and civilian air traffic operations near Reagan, an area already under scrutiny after last year’s deadly crash. Investigators said later tests showed the radios worked well after they were moved to the top of the tower.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
