DCA Warned About Communications Issues with Marine One Before August Safety Incident

Air traffic controllers at DCA warned about communication issues with the Marine Corps helicopter squadron staff prior to a safety incident earlier this month, a preliminary investigation showed.

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The National Transportation Safety Board said Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport staff raised the issue of not receiving the required 3-minute liftoff alert from Marine One flight crews. Marine One — the call sign for the military chopper carrying the president — acknowledged at the time that communications “had been spotty,” according to the report.

The parties agreed to find alternative ways to reach one another during situations where air traffic controllers did not receive a 3-minute warning, the report said. A week after the meeting, Marine One tried to reach air traffic control at DCA twice — including through a separate helicopter facility — before it took off with Trump on board. The calls did not go through, the report said.

The presidential aircraft and a domestic passenger flight came within .82 miles of each other laterally and about 700 feet vertically on Aug. 4, triggering what the Federal Aviation Administration calls a “loss of standard separation.” The incident appeared to violate created after a crash between an American Airlines passenger plane and a military Black Hawk helicopter killed 67 people on Jan. 29, 2025.

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White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an Aug. 4 statement that “at no point was the President in harm’s way.”

Citing certified audio recordings, the NTSB report said Marine One’s first attempt to contact air traffic control was “not received at all.” The second attempt was “broken and completely unreadable, (to which the controller advised on frequency),” the report said.

The frequency had been working normally with no known outages or reports of degradation reported that day, the report said. FAA technicians later determined that there was “not adequate line-of-sight to ensure communications between the radio transmitter/receiver and The Ellipse,” where Marine One has been temporarily operating amid ongoing construction at the White House, according to the report.

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No passengers aboard the airliner were injured during the safety incident.