AUGUST 27, 2026
NTSB finds controllers and Marine One pilots met about radio problems days before dual-takeoff incident at Reagan Airport
Air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Marine One pilots held a meeting days before an August 4 incident in which the presidential helicopter and a passenger jet were briefly airborne at the same time, the National Transportation Safety Board reported Thursday in a preliminary finding. Both sides acknowledged communication had been "spotty" and agreed on a backup contact method — but both the primary and backup methods failed on the day of the incident. President Donald Trump was aboard Marine One at the time; officials said he was never in danger.
The NTSB's preliminary report, released Thursday, describes a July 30 meeting between Marine One pilots and controllers at Reagan Airport, five days before the August 4 incident. At that meeting, both parties confirmed that radio communication had been unreliable and agreed to a fallback procedure: if the standard three-minute warning call could not reach the tower directly, pilots would relay it through the helicopter facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling.
On August 4, Marine One departed from the Ellipse near the White House — its temporary operating location due to ongoing construction at the White House South Lawn helipad — around the same time an Envoy Air flight was cleared for takeoff from Reagan. The Marine One pilots attempted the standard three-minute warning call, as required under a longstanding Pentagon-FAA agreement that predates last year's midair collision. According to official FAA tower recordings reviewed by the NTSB, controllers never received that call. A separate recording posted by ATC.com, however, showed a Marine One pilot telling the tower the helicopter was "three minutes to life." The relay through Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling also failed. Controllers were unaware the helicopter had lifted off until it was already airborne, at which point the Envoy Air aircraft had already been cleared and departed.
NTSB preliminary estimates place the closest point between the two aircraft at roughly 0.82 nautical miles laterally and approximately 700 feet vertically. The Envoy Air crew received a traffic alert from their onboard collision-avoidance system just after takeoff but reported they never visually acquired the helicopter. Marine One pilots reported seeing the commercial aircraft and executed a brief delay before continuing to Andrews Air Force Base.