A Coast Guard plane carrying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and more than a dozen other people made an emergency landing Wednesday following an engine failure.
The Gulfstream jet landed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the Virginia suburbs of Washington. No injuries were reported.
The pilot said in an audio recording communication with air traffic control that “we just lost our right engine and would like to declare an emergency and an immediate landing at DCA.”
The pilot said in the recording that 14 people were on board and that the plane had about 2½ hours’ worth of fuel.
The call from the pilot, which came in around 1:35 p.m. ET, cited “a possible mechanical issue” and asked to divert the plane to Reagan Airport, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said in a statement.
“The plane landed safely, was thoroughly checked by Airports Authority Fire and Rescue personnel then proceeded off the runway. There was no disruption to other flights,” it added.
Mullin described the emergency landing on X.
“The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single engine landing feel routine,” he said. “No panic, just straight professionalism. After we landed, the pilots told me that was a first for them! We could not have been in better hands.”
DHS, which oversees the Coast Guard, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
