A plane carrying U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin made an emergency landing Wednesday after the aircraft experienced an engine failure in flight.
Mullin was returning from Georgia to Washington, D.C., aboard a U.S. Coast Guard C101, a C-37A Gulfstream V jet, when the aircraft was diverted to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia.
“We just lost our right engine and would like to declare an emergency and immediate landing at DCA,” the pilot told the airport’s control tower, according to an audio recording.
Controllers were also told the aircraft was carrying 14 people and had about 2.5 hours of fuel remaining.
Mullin later praised the Coast Guard crew for how they handled the situation. “The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single-engine landing feel routine,” he 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.”
The jet is among the Coast Guard aircraft that the Department of Homeland Security flagged last year over concerns tied to age and long-term reliability. DHS oversees the Coast Guard.
Those concerns surfaced as then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem faced criticism and congressional scrutiny over the purchase of two luxury Gulfstream G700 private jets for the Coast Guard, with costs estimated between $172 million and $200 million — far above her original $50 million request.
DHS has previously warned about the condition of its older aircraft. In 2025, the agency said the C101 was more than “20 years old, outside of Gulfstream’s service life, and well beyond operational usage hours for a corporate aircraft.”
“Much like the US Coast Guard’s ships that are well beyond their service life and safe operational usage, Coast Guard’s aircraft are, too. The Trump Administration is taking action to restore our Nation’s finest maritime Armed Service to a capable fighting force,” said then-DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
In May 2025, Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pressed DHS on why upgrading executive aircraft was prioritized over modernizing aging Coast Guard search-and-rescue planes.
“We know President Trump has set a high bar for wasteful luxury travel by government officials with his unconstitutional attempt to personally acquire a $400 million jet from a foreign government,” the pair wrote in a letter to Noem. “That does not mean members of his Cabinet must follow suit. Your desire to travel in luxury should not eclipse the need for USCG service members to fly safely and conduct lifesaving missions.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS and the Coast Guard.
