[ 2011-04-20 ]

Plane carrying Michelle Obama got too close to military C-17 - Officials
A plane carrying Michelle Obama had to abort its
landing on Monday after it came too close to a
military C-17 cargo plane, according to a senior
administration official and the Federal Aviation
Administration.

The planes were three miles apart, when they are
supposed to be five miles apart, the official told
CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration is
investigating what went wrong, as it is believed
to be an air traffic controller mistake, the
official said.

The White House does not believe the first lady's
life was ever in danger, the senior official
said.

The FAA said in a statement controllers at Andrews
Air Force Base instructed an incoming Boeing 737
to perform a "go around" "because the plane did
not have the required amount of separation" behind
the military plane. The FAA is investigating. "The
aircraft were never in any danger," the agency
said.

The landing was briefly aborted and Obama's plane
had to circle, the official said.

Obama was actually on a C-40, a military version
of the 737 that was part of the Air National Guard
-- not the regular air force fleet used by VIPs at
Andrews, said Maj. Michelle Lai of the 89th
Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base.

The C-17 in question was on the runway, so the FAA
did not want Obama's plane to be caught in the
"jet wash," Lai said. That refers to the force of
the air from the back of the C-17.

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airport

"It's important to know the FAA made the right
call and at no time was the first lady's life in
danger," Lai said.

When the Potomac TRACON, the regional radar
facility, handed off the plane to the Andrews Air
Force Base tower, the planes were three miles
apart, a government official told CNN. "Both
facilities knew how far apart they were" at the
time of the handoff, the official said. But the
official declined to say why the hand-off
occurred.

What it's like to be an air traffic controller

The TRACON could have slowed Obama's plane down or
order it to turn earlier, the official said. Why
that wasn't done is under investigation. But "it
was a controlled situation," the government
official said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it
was gathering information on the incident and will
be making an assessment to determine whether it
will investigate more closely.

Source - CNN

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