Plane carrying Michelle Obama aborts landing after mistake
April 20th, 2011 - 1:40 pm ICT by IANSWashington, April 20 (IANS) A plane carrying US first lady Michelle Obama had to abort landing after coming dangerously close to a military cargo aircraft at the Andrews Air Force Base, officials said.
The incident that took place Monday was due to a mistake by an air traffic controller, Xinhua reported citing the Federal Aviation Administration.
Michelle Obama was returning from a TV appearance with Vice President Joe Biden’s wife Jill in New York and was onboard a Boeing 737.
The controllers at the tower at Andrews saw that a C-17 cargo plane and the Obama aircraft had reached far too close to each other, according to the Washington Post.
They asked the Obama plane to execute a series of “S-turns” to create a safe distance between it and the cargo plane, officials said.
When those manoeuvres failed to achieve the required distance between the two planes, they asked the Obama plane to abort landing and circle the airport.
The Obama plane landed safely later.
- Plane carrying Michelle Obama aborts landing due to serious ATC error - Apr 20, 2011
- Security procedures for Michelle Obama tightened after aborted plane landing - Apr 21, 2011
- Michelle Obama's Plane flew less than 3 miles to C-17 military jet - Apr 24, 2011
- NTSB launches investigation into incident involving Michelle Obama's plane - Apr 21, 2011
- Plane with 127 on board crashes in Pakistan (Second Lead) - Apr 20, 2012
- U.S. FAA issues emergency directive for extra inspections of several Boeing 737 models - Apr 05, 2011
- Boeing to deliver 100 aircraft to India in five years - Mar 14, 2012
- Plane hit by lightning off New Zealand - May 11, 2011
- Boeing reconnaissance aircraft for Indian Navy completes first flight - Sep 29, 2011
- Small passenger plane crashes in eastern Canada, killing 4 - Jan 12, 2012
- Boeing 787 Dreamliner to land at IGI airport Wednesday - Jul 12, 2011
- Southwest Airlines grounds dozens of planes after in-flight fuselage rupture - Apr 02, 2011
- Two die as plane crashes into lagoon - Mar 16, 2012
- Pakistani plane with 127 on board crashes, no survivors (Third Lead) - Apr 21, 2012
- All on board dead in Pakistan plane crash - Apr 21, 2012
Tags: air traffic controller, andrews air force, andrews air force base, boeing, boeing 737, cargo plane, federal aviation administration, first lady, joe biden, manoeuvres, michelle obama, military cargo aircraft, mistake, president joe, safe distance, tv appearance, two planes, washington post, wife jill, xinhua