A close call between Marine One and a commercial aircraft earlier this month may have been partly due to White House ballroom construction, a National Transportation Safety Board report says.
On August 4, the presidential helicopter—with Donald Trump inside—took off from the White House Ellipse, heading to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. The New York Times reported the following day that Trump, 80, had come within 0.82 nautical miles—approximately 0.94 miles—and 700 feet vertically of a passenger jet, because air traffic controllers had not stopped flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.
Now, a preliminary NTSB report viewed by that outlet says that Trump taking off from the Ellipse instead of the South Lawn—a change that was caused by the construction of his ballroom—could have contributed to communication issues.
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