US President Donald Trump’s military helicopter Marine One briefly flew too close to a passenger jet taking off from Washington’s Reagan National airport, prompting investigations by both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The FAA said in a statement that its preliminary safety review of the incident on Tuesday found “a momentary loss of separation, after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another”.

The statement added that Trump was not in danger and that an air traffic controller remained in contact with both pilots throughout.

According to the Reuters news agency, two people familiar with the matter said that air traffic controllers had not paused commercial departures at Reagan National as required under the policy adopted after a crash last year.

In January 2025, a collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet killed 67 people.

Marine One lifted off from the Ellipse near the White House at about 2:33pm local time (18:33 GMT) on Tuesday, en route to Joint Base Andrews ahead of a presidential trip to Los Angeles, according to a White House pool report.

Both the aircraft landed safely, although neither flight’s involvement has been confirmed by the FAA.

A source told Reuters that Envoy Air flight 3742, a regional jet operated on behalf of American Airlines and bound for Pensacola, Florida, was the aircraft involved, and that a second flight, Republic 4700, was separately rerouted as a precaution after coming within three miles of the airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would launch its own investigation into the incident.

The near-miss on Tuesday afternoon revives scrutiny of air traffic protocols at Reagan National following the collision last year.

The crash then led to permanent restrictions on mixed helicopter and commercial traffic at the airport, along with a subsequent ban, introduced in March, on using visual-only separation for helicopters near major US airports. (Al Jazeera)

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