A U.S. Coast Guard jet carrying Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and other senior DHS officials was forced into an emergency landing Wednesday after losing its right engine in flight.
There were 14 people aboard.
Every one of them landed safely.
And Mullin says the crew handled the kind of moment no passenger wants to experience with total calm.
An engine failure on the way to Washington
Fox News reported that Mullin was traveling from Georgia to Washington, D.C., when the Coast Guard aircraft suffered an engine failure.
The plane diverted to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia for an immediate landing. The right engine had failed in flight, according to the first reports from the scene.
Fox said the aircraft was part of the Coast Guard fleet that DHS had previously flagged because of its age. The initial report did not identify a cause for the failure, and there was no immediate indication that anyone aboard was injured.
The story was still developing Wednesday afternoon, but the most important fact was already settled: the pilots got the aircraft onto the runway with one engine and every passenger safely off the plane.
A local breaking-news account published air-traffic audio and video from the incident, reporting that all 14 people aboard made it down safely.
Early reports identified the plane as the Coast Guard’s C-37A, a military version of the Gulfstream V stationed at Air Station Washington.
That aircraft entered Coast Guard service in May 2002, according to the service’s own records.
It is not an ordinary passenger jet.
The Coast Guard uses its long-range command-and-control aircraft to move the secretary of Homeland Security and other top officials while preserving secure communications and continuity of government operations.
Mullin praises the pilots
Mullin did not describe panic in the cabin.
He described professionalism in the cockpit.
The final line of Mullin’s account may be the most striking.
After the landing, he said, the pilots told him it was a first for them.
They had just brought a twin-engine government jet down on one engine, carrying the Cabinet secretary responsible for the very service flying the aircraft.
No injuries were reported in the initial accounts.
The aircraft was already marked for replacement
The emergency comes less than a year after the U.S. Coast Guard announced a major replacement effort for its long-range command-and-control planes. The agency called the purchase a planned and critical recapitalization.
The service said in October 2025 that aircraft in that fleet were as much as 20 years old and had experienced multiple unplanned maintenance problems. Coast Guard leaders described the older planes as aging and obsolete.
From January through mid-October 2025, those planes accumulated 30 days of unplanned maintenance and caused six missions to be canceled, according to the Coast Guard. Those cancellations came before Wednesday’s engine failure.
The agency said the replacement effort was necessary to provide safe, reliable and on-demand military transportation for senior leaders. The aircraft are assigned to carry the homeland security secretary, Coast Guard commandant and other senior officials whose duties may require immediate travel during a national emergency.
The mission extends well beyond official travel. The aircraft carry secure command systems that let senior leaders communicate with the White House, DHS and other agencies while airborne.
The Coast Guard said White House guidance has required that capability for the homeland security secretary since 2004. In a national emergency, the secretary must be able to return to Washington quickly or move directly to another destination while remaining connected to the government.
That is why the aging-aircraft problem was never merely a matter of comfort or convenience. When one of these planes is unavailable, the disruption can affect the movement and communications of the people directing federal emergency operations.
The Coast Guard’s official aviation history says the C-37A was ordered in 2000, began service in 2002 and operates from Air Station Washington.
The aircraft is the military version of the Gulfstream V. It replaced an older C-20B and has spent more than two decades supporting senior Coast Guard and DHS leadership.
A newer C-37B entered service in 2022. The Coast Guard says that plane is based on the Gulfstream G550 and was built to perform the same worldwide command-and-control mission with secure voice and data capability.
The older C-37A remained part of the fleet while the broader recapitalization moved forward. Wednesday’s incident does not by itself establish that age caused the engine failure, and officials had not released that conclusion.
It does put the landing against a documented backdrop: an aircraft that entered service in 2002, a fleet with recurring maintenance problems and an agency already working to replace its oldest command planes.
The cause of Wednesday’s engine failure was not immediately detailed in the initial reports.
What is already clear is that the emergency ended without loss of life.
The pilots did their job under pressure.
Fourteen people walked away.
https://wltreport.com/2026/09/02/markwayne-mullin-coast-guard-engine-failure-emergency-landing/
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