DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin was aboard a Coast Guard aircraft on Wednesday when it lost an engine and had to make an emergency landing at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington County, Virginia.
Mullin was flying from Georgia to Washington, D.C. aboard a U.S. Coast Guard C101, a C-37A Gulfstream V jet, when the crew was forced to divert. “We just lost our right engine and would like to declare an emergency and immediate landing at DCA,” the pilot told air traffic control, according to an audio recording of the exchange. The pilot reported 14 people on board and 2.5 hours of fuel remaining.
Mullin credited the flight crew for handling the situation calmly. “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.”
An Aircraft Already Flagged as Too Old
The plane involved is one of the Coast Guard aircraft that DHS itself flagged last year for its age. DHS oversees the Coast Guard. 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.”
Then-DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said at the time: “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.”
A Fight Over Priorities
The engine failure lands squarely in the middle of an unresolved political dispute over how DHS spends money on aircraft. Then-Secretary Kristi Noem faced backlash and congressional scrutiny last year after purchasing two luxury Gulfstream G700 private jets for the Coast Guard at a cost of between $172 million and $200 million — far above her initial $50 million request.
In May 2025, Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pressed DHS over the decision to prioritize upgrading executive aircraft instead of 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. 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 for comment.
