White House decision to relocate Marine One helicopter pad led to close call with jet: report

Ongoing construction at the White House contributed to radio miscommunication with air traffic controllers, which led to the president's helicopter getting too close to a jet departing Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport earlier this month, federal investigators said Thursday. 

The same communication issues came up on Thursday, when air traffic controllers at the Regan airport weren't able to hear Marine One and had to ask a support helicopter to relay messages. 

“If you hear Marine One, can you let me know?” an air traffic controller said to the support helicopter, WTOP reported. 

The week before the president's helicopter flew too close to the departing Envoy Air jet, air traffic controllers and Marine One pilots met to discuss controllers not receiving the standard three-minute warning call ahead of Marine One flights, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board. 

They made plans to relay radio calls through someone else if there were future problems, but that effort turned out to be unsuccessful on the day of the Aug. 4 incident. After that incident, technicians discovered the issues were caused by the helicopter being relocated during construction. 

To address the issue, the Federal Aviation Administration moved the radio receiver out of a neighborhood near the airport to the top of the tower at the Reagan airport.