Homeland Security secretary’s Coast Guard plane makes emergency landing

By Aaron Cooper, Pete Muntean, CNN

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (CNN) — An engine failed on a US Coast Guard plane with the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security onboard, forcing it to make an emergency landing Wednesday afternoon.

“We just lost our right engine and would like to declare an emergency,” the pilot of Coast Guard flight 101 radioed air traffic controllers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, according to a recording by ATC.com.

The C-37A jet, a military version of the Gulfstream V, had taken off from Lawson Army Airfield near Columbus, Georgia, about an hour-and-a-half earlier, according to open source flight tracking site ADS-B Exchange.

The plane had 14 people onboard, the pilot relayed to controllers, and enough fuel to fly for two-and-a-half more hours.

It landed safely and taxied off of the runway, followed by a pair of airport firetrucks.

“The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single engine landing feel routine. No panic, just straight professionalism,” DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin posted on social media. “After we landed, the pilots told me that was a first for them! We could not have been in better hands.”

The Coast Guard is a part of DHS and often transports the secretary in one of two long range command and control aircraft.

Last year, before Mullin became secretary, the agency defended requests for funding to replace one of the planes.

“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,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement posted online. “This is a matter of safety.”

Two Congressional Democrats also noted many other Coast Guard aircraft were much older in a letter to then Secretary Kristy Noem, criticizing a request for $50 million to buy a new plane.

“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,” Representatives Bennie Thompson and LaMonica McIver wrote. “Your desire to travel in luxury should not eclipse the need for USCG service members to fly safely and conduct lifesaving missions.”

The US Coast Guard referred CNN to DHS for comment on Wednesday’s incident. DHS, in turn, directed CNN to Mullin’s social media posting.

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