A U.S. Coast Guard plane carrying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made an emergency landing outside Washington on Wednesday after reporting that one of its engines had failed.
“We just lost our right engine. We’d like to declare an emergency and immediate landing at DCA,” the pilot told air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport around 1:30 p.m., according to recordings on ATC.com.
The pilot told air traffic controllers that the plane had 14 people on board and about 2½ hours’ worth of fuel.
After the incident, Mullin said on X that the pilots had made the single-engine landing feel routine.
“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,” he wrote.
The Federal Aviation Administration and Coast Guard declined to comment.
Mullin was flying aboard a Gulfstream jet that was more than 20 years old, two former DHS officials and a person familiar with the matter said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share details on internal operations.
Former homeland security secretary Kristi L. Noem said in a May 2025 congressional hearing that the plane was “beyond its usable hours” and cited it as a reason to purchase new aircraft.
Noem, who was removed from her position in March, faced criticism from lawmakers for her department’s decision to purchase several new jets, including a luxury 737 Max.
One of the former DHS officials said the emergency landing was “extremely rare” in a Gulfstream and had never happened previously in the Coast Guard region in Washington.
The former official said the right engine failed on arrival, and pilots landed the plane with no incident.
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