Transportation Secretary working on telecom issues after Marine One close call with passenger jet

Published Aug 11, 03:45 PM UTC

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on August 11, 2026, that he is addressing telecom issues following a recent incident where Marine One, a military helicopter carrying President Donald Trump, came dangerously close to a passenger jet departing Reagan Washington National Airport. The close call has raised concerns about why commercial traffic was not halted as usual during the presidential helicopter's presence. This incident follows a deadly January 2025 crash between a military helicopter and a commercial jet that killed 67 people, after which the FAA banned mixed helicopter and jet traffic around the airport. Duffy stated he is working with the FAA and the White House on a fix. The FAA is currently spending billions to upgrade outdated air traffic control telecom and radar systems after a series of failures, including major outages affecting Newark and Washington traffic and a 2023 nationwide ground stop.