Controllers at Ronald Reagan National Airport and Marine One pilots could not reach one another on Thursday while the helicopter readied to leave the White House, CNN found after listening to tower recordings. CBS News reported that the helicopter transmissions never reached controllers until a crew on another aircraft helped.

The episode arrived less than a month after an August 4 close call in which Marine One and an Envoy Air jet leaving the same airport closed to 700 feet of vertical space. Controllers never heard that Marine One was departing the Ellipse, so they did not stop commercial takeoffs the way they normally do during those movements. The National Transportation Safety Board said President Donald Trump was aboard Marine One that day, flying to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to board Air Force One for Los Angeles.