A U.S. Coast Guard aircraft carrying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin was forced to make an emergency landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after suffering an engine failure during a flight from Georgia to Washington.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin landed safely Wednesday after a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft carrying him to Washington suffered an engine failure and was diverted to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The aircraft, identified as a Coast Guard C101, had been traveling from Georgia to Washington, D.C., when the mechanical failure forced the crew to make an emergency landing at the Virginia airport.
The plane landed safely at DCA despite losing an engine in flight.
Mullin later praised the Coast Guard pilots for remaining composed throughout the emergency and said the landing was so smooth that the seriousness of the situation was not immediately apparent.
“The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single-engine landing feel routine,” Mullin wrote on X. “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.”
Mullin also publicly thanked the U.S. Coast Guard following the incident.
The emergency has also drawn attention to the age of the aircraft.
According to a Fox News report, the aircraft is among Coast Guard planes that the Department of Homeland Security flagged last year because of their age.
Fox News reported:
A plane carrying Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made an emergency landing Wednesday after the aircraft suffered an engine failure.
Mullion was traveling from Georgia to Washington, D.C., when the U.S. Coast Guard C101 was diverted to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.
“The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single-engine landing feel routine,” Mullin wrote on X about the ordeal. “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.”
The aircraft is one of the Coast Guard planes that the Department of Homeland Security flagged last year because of its age.
The incident ended without a reported crash or injury after the Coast Guard crew successfully brought the aircraft down at Reagan National.
Mullin’s account suggested that even he did not initially realize how unusual the maneuver had been until speaking with the pilots after landing, when they told him it was the first time they had performed such a landing.
The mechanical failure nevertheless raises renewed questions about an aging segment of the Coast Guard’s aviation fleet, particularly because the aircraft involved had already been identified by DHS over concerns tied to its age.
For Mullin, the episode ultimately concluded with a safe arrival in the Washington area and public praise for the crew whose response turned an in-flight engine failure into an uneventful landing on the ground.
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