Turkey’s first ‘secret’ switch, now ‘accidental’ slide deployment: What happened on Trump’s Qatari Air Force One | Today’s news
US President Donald Trump’s departure for his Republican convention in Dallas, Texas, was unexpectedly delayed after an emergency chute was deployed on the Qatari-gifted jet used as Air Force One.
Trump arrived at Joint Base Andrews by helicopter on Wednesday. He was forced to stay on board for about 20 minutes because the inflatable slide remained deployed near the front of the plane, Bloomberg reported.
Read also | Emergency footage deployed on Qatar-gifted Air Force One ahead of Trump’s flight
After the incident, he had to wait in his helicopter before he could board the plane. Workers on the ground eventually removed the slide, allowing Trump to drive off.
Air Force One, gifted by US President Donald Trump, stalled on the tarmac on Wednesday after an emergency inflatable slide accidentally deployed, raising new questions about the plane’s safety.
what exactly happened
Trump appeared to suggest that the emergency chute was deployed on purpose as he waited for about 20 minutes inside Marine One on the tarmac.
The 80-year-old man reportedly said inspectors were inspecting one of the Boeing 747’s inflatable slides used for emergency evacuations.
“They’re checking the slide over there. And I think it’s going to take 15 minutes. They were doing a slide check, you know, an emergency — so I think it’s going to take about 15 minutes,” Trump said on the tarmac before finally boarding Air Force One.
Read also | Why did Trump switch from the Boeing 747-8 to the older Air Force One? The report reveals….
A person briefed on the situation later told AFP that “military personnel accidentally triggered the chute.”
Asked earlier by ABC News why the image was being censored and if there were security concerns, Trump said they just wanted to make sure it was “working perfectly.”
Images are typically not checked by deploying them before departure because removing and replacing them after deployment is a time-consuming process, the report added.
Qatar plane security
Air Force One is the name for the plane carrying the US head of state.
According to reports, the security of the plane has been the subject of repeated questions, and the issue came to a head during the recent dramatic incident in Turkey, where Trump secretly transferred to another plane due to security concerns.
Asked by an AFP reporter on Wednesday if Trump was sure the plane was safe, Trump replied: “Yes, I am, otherwise I wouldn’t be on it.”
Read also | New York Times reporters subpoenaed for security report on new Air Force One
This gave journalists time to watch the inflatable slide deployed on the right side of the jet, as well as the transfer of the former presidential plane from the hangar to the tarmac with the boarding bridges extended.
The current Air Force One eventually took off and landed in Texas, where Trump is scheduled to address the Republican convention in an effort to rally his party ahead of the November election.
“As the president said, the footage was checked to make sure everything worked perfectly,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement to AFP, adding that Trump “will deliver his much-anticipated speech to a raucous, sold-out crowd.”
Security and secret switch
The Qatar plane, repainted in Trump’s chosen red, white and blue colors, was last in the spotlight in July, when Trump made a last-minute decision not to join members of the press and senior administration on a jet departing from a NATO summit in Turkey.
Trump pretended to board the old Air Force One as planned — only to secretly exit a different door to a catering car that took him to a third plane.
President Donald Trump, right, is accompanied by Air Force Col. Christopher M. Robinson, commander of the 89th Airlift Wing, left, as he goes to speak to the media as U.S. Air Force One crew members, bottom left, work to remove an emergency inflatable slide deployed on Air Force One before Trump arrived on board at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, Sept. 20, 26.(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
The move was in response to a reported security threat from Iran involving a surface-to-air missile.
Trump later confirmed that he had secretly switched planes as he was leaving a NATO summit in Turkey.
“It’s just on the Secret Service. I’m just watching what they want to do, so I go to the Secret Service and the military,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
Trump recently announced that work to beef up security measures on the new plane would begin in October and take two months — a month longer than he previously said.
Qatar gift
Qatar’s royal family donated the luxury jet last year after Trump complained about the condition of the two older Air Force Ones, which feature distinctive white, silver and robin blue colors and have been in service since 1990.
The multi-hundred-million-dollar donated plane has raised major ethical and constitutional questions about the gifts a US president can receive from foreign governments.
But it also raised questions about the safety of military equipment given by a foreign power.
The jet has already been converted by the military and is to be used until Boeing delivers two new planes in the coming years.
Trump has indicated that he intends to keep the Qatar plane for his future presidential museum.
(With input from agencies)
