A White House jet with First Lady Michelle Obama on board aborted its landing at Andrews Air Base after it came too close to a 200-ton military cargo aircraft, the Washington Post reported citing government sources.
The Boeing-737 aircraft with the first lady and Jill Biden, the vice president's wife was returning to Washington D.C. from New York on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration controllers in Andrews tower noticed that the Boeing-737 was to close to massive C-17 cargo jet upon its approach to the base and ordered the Obama flight to execute a series of S-turns to increase the distance between the jets.
"When those maneuvers failed to achieve the required distance between the two planes - and the Andrews controllers realized the cargo jet would not have time to get off the runway before the presidential plane arrived - they aborted the landing of the Obama plane and ordered it to circle the base," the newspaper said citing sources.
This is the sixth such incident in the United States involving air traffic controllers. Last month an air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. went silent on early morning prompting two passenger aircrafts with total of 165 passengers and crew to land on their own.
WASHINGTON, April 20 (RIA Novosti)
