In a scene that some might call straight out of a comedic script about government oversight—or lack thereof—officials are scratching their heads over Reagan National Airport’s decision to carry on with commercial flights while Marine One, the presidential helicopter, was taking off. One might assume that safety protocols around the President’s movements would be ironclad, but it seems someone left a loophole wide enough for a Boeing 737 to taxi through. It’s almost like they decided to roll the dice with a high-stakes game of “Will They or Won’t They Collide?”
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) insists there was no real danger, lightly dismissing the incident. They assert that the aircraft were separated by the required distance according to aviation rules: one and a half miles horizontally and 500 feet vertically. The flight paths of Marine One and the nearby jet, they say, were not converging. Still, their assurance is cold comfort to those who remember a tragic crash between an Army helicopter and a commercial jet just last year at the same airport—a crash that claimed 67 lives and presumably led to the current restrictions against mixing plane and helicopter traffic at Reagan National.
In the latest escapade, Marine One lifted off from the White House just before 2:33 p.m., heading to Joint Base Andrews with the President onboard. Simultaneously, an American Airlines flight took off for Florida, making this close encounter the aviation equivalent of a game of chicken. But it’s all routine, right? Just the Commander-in-Chief cruising above D.C. as jets scramble like oblivious tourists in a crosswalk.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is looking into how this glitch managed to unfold. We can only imagine their surprise when they discovered that the air traffic controller was already in contact with both pilots when the “momentary loss of separation” occurred. Although they did manage to avoid any mid-air theatrics, it’s enough to make one wonder if the air traffic controllers borrowed a page from the circus handbook.
For the White House, this is shrugged off blithely as just another day in Washington. They have assured the public that Marine One is flown by “some of the best aviators in the world,” and at no point was the President ever in harm’s way. It’s a nice sentiment, but perhaps next time they might consider ensuring these world-class aviators aren’t playing dodgeball with commercial airliners over our nation’s capital. Rest assured, they’ll get to the bottom of this—eventually—which is great news for anyone planning a future flight through D.C. Hopefully, by then, playing a game of chicken will remain just a joke and not part of a pilot’s checklist.
