A Coast Guard plane carrying one of the top Trump administration officials and over a dozen other people was forced to make an emergency landing on Wednesday (US time), September 2. An audio recording capturing the pilot’s urgent interaction with air traffic control (ATC) has since circulated online, confirming that the mid-air scare was linked to an engine failure.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin later confirmed on his social media profile that he was on the military jet, which ultimately landed safely at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington.
DHS Secretary’s military jet declares emergency
While coordinating how to proceed with the emergency landing, the pilot further relayed to ATC that there were “14 souls on board Coast Guard flight 101,” according to a recording by ATC.com. The audio also highlighted that at the time of the sudden declaration, the plane had enough fuel to fly for two and a half hours.
“We just lost our right engine. We’d like to declare an emergency and just immediate landing at DCA,” the pilot said, according to the recording available online.
Open-source flight tracking site ADS-B Exchange showed that the plane involved in the incident earlier this week was the C-37A jet, a military version of the Gulfstream V. It took off from Lawson Army Airfield near Columbus, Georgia, about an hour-and-a-half before declaring an emergency.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement that the pilot’s call, around 1:35 pm ET, shed light on a “possible mechanical issue,” asking permission to divert the plane to Reagan Airport.
“The plane landed safely, was thoroughly checked by Airports Authority Fire and Rescue personnel then proceeded off the runway. There was no disruption to other flights,” it added.
What did DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin say?
Re-posting an X post detailing the emergency landing report, Mullin praised the US Coast Guard pilots for making the “single-engine landing feel routine.”
“No panic, just straight professionalism,” he wrote, adding that after they landed safely, the pilot told him and others on board that it was a “first” for them.
“We could not have been in better hands,” he exclaimed.
The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single engine landing feel routine. No panic, just straight professionalism. After we landed, the pilots told me that was a first for them! We could not have been in better hands. https://t.co/ckhCkJbsRX— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) September 2, 2026
As a maritime organisation, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) is one of America’s six armed forces and the only military branch in the Department of Homeland Security.
A former US senator, Mullin became the DHS secretary after President Donald Trump fired Kristi Noem in March. Prior to her removal, Mullin’s predecessor, dubbed “ICE Barbie,” was subjected to months of bipartisan criticism for Homeland Security’s handling of the immigration crackdown, including the shootings of two US citizens by federal officers in Minneapolis.
She also faced questions over delays in emergency response and a $220 million advertisement campaign prominently featuring her. Trump, on his part, told Reuters at the time that he didn’t sign off on the ad, despite Noem telling Republican US Senator John Kennedy that the POTUS had approved it.
Safety concerns flagged about old Coast Guard aircraft
In a statement shared online last year, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “The current CG-101 G550 is over 20 years old, outside of Gulfstream’s service life, and well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft,” labelling it a “matter of safety.”
McLaughlin’s remarks affirm that the agency was defending requests for funding for one of the planes’ replacement well before Mullin became secretary.
Elsewhere, two Democrats also pointed out that quite a few Coast Guard jets were even older. Simultaneously, Representatives Bennie Thompson and LaMonica McIver criticised Homeland Security’s request for $50 million to buy a luxurious new plane, as it would hamper investments that could otherwise aid the USCG.
They wrote in a letter to then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, “Funding the acquisition of this new jet would come at the cost of other USCG investments, including sorely needed modernization of the USCG’s aging aircraft fleet used by service members for search and rescue and other critical missions.”
They added, “Your desire to travel in luxury should not eclipse the need for USCG service members to fly safely and conduct lifesaving missions.”
Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois also expressed in a social media post at the time that she was “horrified” to get a “last-minute addition” to the services’ budget proposal for the jet, which DHS sought to acquire to replace an aging one used by Noem and other top officials.
“We should be investing in our national security and improving the lives of our Coasties — not wasting taxpayer dollars on luxury travel and political stunts,” the ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations stated last year.