A problem with the door seal on the Boeing 737 forced the chartered plane to return to the airport before continuing to Cincinnati.
- Share full article
JD Vance was traveling with his wife, Usha, along with a group of advisers, Secret Service agents and journalists when his campaign plane made an emergency landing on the way to Cincinnati.
A chartered campaign plane carrying Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, was forced to make an emergency landing in Milwaukee on Friday shortly after takeoff because of a door malfunction on the aircraft, a campaign spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman, Taylor Van Kirk, said that the aircraft, a Boeing 737-86J that the campaign refers to as Trump Force Two, returned to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, where the problem was quickly resolved before the flight continued to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
“The pilot advised there was a malfunction with the door seal,” Ms. Van Kirk said in a statement.
It was the second time in a week that one of the Trump campaign’s planes had a mechanical issue. Last Friday, former President Donald J. Trump’s Boeing 757 had to divert to Billings, Mont., while he was en route to a rally in Bozeman, Mont., because of an unspecified issue. He completed the journey on a charter aircraft.
This week, Mr. Vance went to Wisconsin to deliver remarks to the Milwaukee Police Association, a union of about 1,500 members that endorsed the Republican ticket.
He was traveling with his wife, Usha, along with a group of advisers, Secret Service agents and journalists, including a reporter from The New York Times — and his German shepherd, Atlas. The flight landed around 4 p.m. Eastern time near Cincinnati, where the Vances live.
About four minutes after the plane took off from Milwaukee, the pilot asked passengers over the intercom to fasten their seatbelts and said that the plane would be immediately returning to the airport. Secret Service agents aboard the plane reacted with confusion and laughter, and it was not immediately clear to some passengers that there was an emergency until after the plane had landed.
After landing, the plane remained on the tarmac for just under an hour. The pilot apologized over the intercom for causing “elevated heart rates.”
The Federal Aviation Administration referred questions on Friday to the Trump-Vance campaign about the emergency landing and the diversion of Mr. Trump’s plane one week earlier.
The plane used by Mr. Vance is 22 years old, according to public aviation records. The charter company that operates the aircraft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The emergency landing was at least the third mishap involving a Trump campaign plane this year.
In May, Mr. Trump’s ubiquitous Boeing 757, called Trump Force One, clipped a parked plane as it was taxiing at a Florida airport. It was not clear whether Mr. Trump was aboard the aircraft at the time of the incident. A few days later, he was seen traveling aboard a considerably smaller private jet to Cincinnati for a fund-raiser.
Neil Vigdor covers politics for The Times, focusing on voting rights issues and election disinformation. More about Neil Vigdor
Chris Cameron covers politics for The Times, focusing on breaking news and the 2024 campaign. More about Chris Cameron
See more on: 2024 Elections, U.S. Politics, J.D. Vance, Donald Trump
- Share full article
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
