Marine One again experiences communication issues with air traffic control

President Trump's helicopter, Marine One, encountered communication problems with air traffic controllers on Thursday afternoon as it prepared for takeoff in Washington, D.C. This marks the second such incident for the presidential helicopter this month.

During the attempted takeoff, Marine One's calls to controllers went unanswered, necessitating intervention from another pilot to establish communication. The event occurred approximately one hour after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had released new information regarding a similar communication failure on August 4.

In the earlier incident, Marine One, with President Trump aboard, flew within a mile of a commercial jet. The NTSB investigation revealed that the helicopter's initial attempt to contact air traffic controllers was not received at all, and a subsequent attempt was fragmented and unintelligible.

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There's been a lot of infrastructure that's been built in Virginia and in the D.C. area. And so we have some interference with our antenna. And so we're working right now on fixing that communication.

FAA technicians identified a lack of adequate line-of-sight to the communication antenna as a contributing factor, particularly when using The Ellipse, a large lawn near the White House used for takeoffs due to ongoing construction. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had previously assured CBS News on August 11 that the issue had been resolved, attributing the problem to interference with the antenna caused by new infrastructure in the D.C. area.

Despite Duffy's statement that a fix was in place and the problem should not recur, Thursday's incident demonstrates a persistent communication challenge. The FAA confirmed that controllers eventually established contact with Marine One prior to its takeoff but did not directly address the apparent return of radio issues in their statement.

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And so we already have a fix in place and that should not take place again.