A Boeing 737 carrying Senator J.D. Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate for Vice President, and others, inadvertently intruded into the heart of one of the most restricted pieces of sky on the planet earlier this week as it left Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport. The jet passed over the World War II Memorial across from the Washington Monument along a route that also took it between the White House and the Lincoln Memorial, all of which is decidedly off-limits to commercial air traffic.
Vance and the rest of his entourage left Reagan National Airport on board the Boeing 737, which carries the civil registration number N917XA and is owned and operated by Eastern Air Express, on Wednesday. The aircraft, which is currently wrapped in Trump-Vance campaign livery and is also sometimes referred to as “Trump Force Two,” was using the callsign BBQ917 at the time. That a potentially serious flight error had occurred during the departure first came to our attention thanks to @thenewarea51 on X, a friend of The War Zone, who shared flight tracking data and a brief recording of air traffic control audio online.
“Eastern Express 917, I have a phone number I need you to take down… I need you to call when you get down on the ground in reference to a possible pilot deviation,” the air traffic controller can be heard telling the crew of Vance’s jet in the audio clip @thenewarea51 posted. Additional air traffic control audio subsequently surfaced where the instruction “make a left” can also be heard.
“Pilot deviations can occur in several different ways,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “Airborne deviations can result when pilots stray from an assigned, heading, altitude, or instrument procedure, or if they penetrate controlled or restricted airspace without ATC [air traffic control] clearance.”
“For a pilot in command, the first sign of trouble is being ordered to copy down a phone number,” according to a page on pilot deviations on the website of the Aero Law Center legal firm. “This is called a Brasher warning. Like a Miranda warning, it is a legal formula meant to put the pilot on notice about a possible violation and its consequences. ATC will create a mandatory occurrence report (MOR) about the deviation, unless an electronic occurrence report (EOR) suffices instead. Although a pilot is expected to call when the flight is over, there is no need to call right away. It is wise to prepare by reviewing your actions, recordings, and data.”
Brasher warnings are not rare and can be regularly heard in public air traffic control audio, especially for major airspace violations, such as violating temporary flight restrictions put in place for VIP security reasons.
Pilot deviations are still serious business and where N917XA flew after leaving Reagan National Airport takes this to a different level. Since 9/11, Washington, D.C., has been at the center of a Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) that extends 30 miles in all directions and from the ground up to 17,999 feet, which comes along with a host of unique requirements for commercial and other civilian pilots, including those taking off from and landing at Reagan National Airport.
The SFRA is within a larger dedicated Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) for the nation’s capital. Two additional zones inside the SFRA are completely off-limits. One encompasses the National Mall (to include the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Washington Monument, among other landmarks) and the other is around the Naval Observatory, which is the Vice President’s residence.
The airspace over Washington, D.C. is heavily guarded by an array of U.S. military assets, including U.S. Air Force F-16 fighters sitting on alert and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and Avenger air defense systems deployed on the ground. Less-than-lethal capabilities are also in place, including ground-based laser systems. You can read more about these airspace restrictions and how unresponsive intrusions are handled, with the potential for the use of deadly force, here.
Flying in and out of Reagan National Airport has always presented certain challenges given its location on the bank of the Potomac River to the south of D.C. proper and outside Arlington, Virginia. Today, aircraft departing from the airport’s Runway 01, as M917XA did earlier this week, typically bank left to follow the river to the north, though they also sometimes take hard right turns to exit the area. Regardless, there is always an eye toward avoiding the National Mall.
An official FAA notice also advises that “especially with a west wind” pilots need to execute “a left turn as soon as practicable … to maintain a ground track over the Potomac River” when departing Reagan National Airport to the northwest.
What factors, including wind and other weather, may have led to the deviation and what repressions the pilot may now face are unknown. The War Zone has reached out to Eastern Airlines and the Trump-Vance campaign for more information.
“We investigate every airspace violation and take appropriate action based on the circumstances,” an FAA spokesperson told The War Zone in response to our queries about the incident.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware that an aircraft entered restricted airspace in the National Capital Region on Sept. 4 while departing from Reagan National Airport,” Nate Herring, a spokesperson for that agency, told The War Zone, as well. “U.S. Secret Service agents spoke to the pilot, and it was determined that there was no protective nexus.”
The U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) separately told The War Zone that it had taken no action in response to M917XA passing through prohibited airspace over the National Mall.
Otherwise, the rest of N917XA’s trip from Reagan National Airport to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona looks to have been uneventful. Vance attended a campaign event in Mesa, Arizona on September 4 as planned.
Since being unveiled as the official campaign jet for Vance in July, N917XA has already been involved in a number of other incidents. On July 18, the jet found itself circling outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin because it did not have the proper clearances to enter airspace over the city. Temporary flight restrictions had been put in place as part of security measures for this year’s Republican National Convention, which was held in Milwaukee. The aircraft was subsequently diverted to Madison before being allowed to continue on to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport.
Last month, N917XA made an emergency landing at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport soon after departing from there due to an issue with the seal on one of the aircraft’s doors that created a serious risk of cabin depressurization. “As soon as the issue was resolved, the plane returned to its originally planned flight path back to Cincinnati,” Taylor Van Kirk, spokesperson for Vance, told Newsweek after that incident.
Aircraft used to support presidential campaigns generally draw additional attention and incidents involving them often make news. In August, Trump’s Boeing 757, also known as Trump Force One, had to divert to Billings-Logan International Airport in Montana due to a mechanical issue. Back in 2016, another Boeing 737 carrying then-candidate for Vice President and Indiana Governor Mike Pence went skidding off the runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The plane and its occupants were saved from a potentially even more serious accident by an obscure safety feature you can read more about here.
At the time of writing, N917XA is currently in San Diego, where it brought Vance earlier today for more campaign events.
Special thanks to @thenewarea51 on X for bringing the incident involving N917XA over the skies above the nation’s capital on September 4 to our attention.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com