President Donald Trump was aboard Marine One when it was involved in an “air-traffic safety incident” above Washington, D.C. that is being reviewed by federal aviation officials.

Trump’s Marine One helicopter was taking off from the Ellipse, near the White House, Tuesday afternoon en route to Joint Base Andrews ahead of the president’s trip to Los Angeles when the incident took place, The Wall Street Journal first reported.

Communications between Marine One and air-traffic controllers are being investigated after the president’s helicopter took off before commercial flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were halted, as required under safety protocols brought in after a fatal midair collision last year.

The incident did not amount to a serious close call but follows the deadly crash in January 2025 where an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided midair with an American Airlines passenger jet that had been cleared to land at the airport.

Ever since the devastating crash, which claimed 67 lives, the Federal Aviation Administration has taken action to restrict mixed traffic around the airport.

“The FAA is investigating a safety incident involving Marine One but it didn’t appear to be a dangerous close call and the aircraft weren’t apparently converging,” the agency said in a statement.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said “at no point was the President in harm’s way” and praised Marine One as being “piloted by some of the best aviators in the world.”

FAA officials believe the incident “may have resulted in what they call a loss of standard separation,” people familiar with the matter told the WSJ, “an air-traffic control protocol to keep aircraft a safe distance apart.”

Envoy Air 3742, a regional E170 jet bound for Pensacola, Florida, departed at 2:34 p.m. and was involved in the apparent loss of separation incident with Marine One, Reuters reported.

FAA rules require aircraft to remain separated by at least 1.5 miles horizontally and 500 feet vertically around airports. Sources told the WSJ that it appeared Marine One and the plane did not maintain that separation.

Controllers expect Marine One to provide at least three minutes’ warning before they take off so the FAA can ensure the airspace is clear of commercial aircraft.

Reagan airport has experienced a number of close calls before and after last year’s collision — the deadliest commercial aviation disaster in America in more than 20 years. In May 2025, the National Transportation Safety Board investigated an incident in which two commercial planes were instructed to perform “go-arounds” to avoid an Army Black Hawk helicopter.

Air traffic control directed a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and a Republic Airways Embraer E170 to conduct a “go-around” maneuver – both aborting their planned landings – as the priority air transport helicopter was flying inbound to the Pentagon Army Hospital, the FAA said at the time.

An angry Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said afterward that it was “unacceptable” that two commercial airlines had to abort their landings because an Army helicopter was heading to the Pentagon.