Air Force One Turns Back After Minor Electrical Fault (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We have just learned that Air Force One is turning around and returning to Joint Base Andrews just a couple of minutes after taking off from Davos for Davos, Switzerland. President Trump was scheduled to meet with world leaders at the World Economic Forum. We're gonna bring in CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what do we know about what's happening here?

[00:00:21] Speaker 2: So we have been told by a source that was familiar with what is going on that Air Force One did turn around moments ago. It is on its way back to Joint Air Force Base Andrews. And this is because of what they are calling a small mechanical issue. They're saying that it is not serious, but that they need it to return back and that President Trump is still going to go to Davos, but he will be taking a backup plane. So likely what we're going to see is an entire deplaning of the president and his team and getting up on one of these backup support planes that is waiting right now, currently at Andrews Air Force Base. And one thing to keep in mind, there is a pool traveling with him of reporters, but one of the complications on Air Force One, of course, is that there is no internet for those reporters once they are airborne. So we will have likely a readout from those pool reporters as to what exactly was going on aboard Air Force One during this time. But what we know right now is that that plane did make essentially a U-turn after leaving and is on its way back to Andrews Air Force Base in order to have the president swap planes. Again, this is expected that he will still be going to Davos, he will still be giving his speech and meeting with those world leaders. But again, obviously things will be slightly delayed given what's occurred today.

[00:01:46] Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is approximately a seven and a half hour trip to Davos. Kristen, if you're still with us, Kristen, do you know what their ETA back to Joint Base Andrews is, how much longer they have for President Trump to get back to that base?

[00:02:07] Speaker 2: We aren't entirely sure. It certainly seems as though this happened in recent, in the last 30 minutes, we started seeing reports online that Air Force One had turned around. So we started reaching out to sources to see, because there are a couple of different things that could have happened there. We also know that the tracking is not always a hundred percent accurate. And so we started reaching out to sources and that's when we learned that he would be turning back. So, but again, it seems to be some kind of minor electrical issue at this point. It doesn't seem as though there's anything serious that happened on the plane. We should, at any moment, really, once they get low enough, be able to get some kind of readout from the pool traveling with the president to get exactly what they are being told is happening.

[00:03:06] Speaker 1: And Kristen, I know that information is a little scant right now, but I've also been on these trips on Air Force One and have had to deal sometimes with mechanical issues happening just before we're about to take off. Sometimes then they have to switch to that other backup plane and it's not the large plane that the president is used to for traveling longer distances. Do you have any sense of what type of backup they are planning to utilize, if it's gonna be the same type of plane, the same size, or if it might be one of the smaller planes?

[00:03:45] Speaker 2: It's unclear right now. We do know that he had a number, what I was told is he had a number of support planes. He always has a number of support planes. Some of them fly with him. He obviously needs them once he gets there as well to have backup planes. But we were told that there was a plane waiting for him already at JBA, at Air Force Base, when he gets there. So clearly they had something set up. We are not sure what kind of plane it will be. I mean, just a reminder, he is traveling with a pretty large entourage. So it's going to have to be one of the bigger planes since he's got Secretary Marco Rubio, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, both of his communications director, the press secretary, a number of others who are traveling on this trip with him. So it will likely be a larger plane, plus we'll have to have that press pool that I mentioned traveling with them and all the secret service that is required for a foreign trip. So, but it's unclear like which kind of plane it's going to be, but it does appear, or at least what my source is telling me is that there's already a plane waiting on the tarmac for them to quickly deplane and get back airborne for Davos.

[00:04:53] Speaker 1: And based on his schedule for the upcoming day, does this delay, do you think, potentially delay anything once he arrives on the ground or change what he might have to do once he arrives there?

[00:05:08] Speaker 2: Well, I mean, one of the most interesting things that we heard from him, Abby, just moments before he left was this idea where he said that he had no idea what to expect when he got to Davos. I mean, we are at a time right now where our relationship, our being the United States, with European allies is probably the most tense. It's been certainly one of the most tense times since he came back into office. There has been escalating rhetoric when it comes to Greenland. President Trump made a joke today during his very lengthy press briefing about, I bet they're all really excited to see me and can't wait for me to get there. I mean, he's acknowledging that the relationships right now are incredibly frayed. And when we asked specifically what meetings he had, he said he was meeting with several foreign leaders to talk about Greenland, but we've not gotten any kind of list breakdown of who he's meeting with and when. We know, of course, he was supposed to give that speech as soon as he landed or around right when he landed to the World Economic Forum, but that in itself was going to be a big question mark as to how he approached that speech, particularly given what we saw today in the briefing room. So in terms of what his schedule is, they have been, they've given us kind of blocks of what he's doing, but no real specifics. We do know that there are a lot of foreign leaders who would like to be able to sit down with him and get a read on what's actually going on in his mind and with the U.S. military and with his administration when it comes to Greenland in particular, but not clear how this is going to affect those meetings, given that we've really had such scant details on what exactly his hourly schedule is going to be once he gets there.

[00:06:49] Speaker 1: That's very interesting. Kristen, stand by for us. I'm gonna bring in now CNN aviation analyst, Mary Schiavo. Mary, can you tell us from your great experience in this field, what do you think would cause the crew here to decide that it was worth just turning the plane back, something that would appear as they were on route to Davos that would cause them to then decide to go back?

[00:07:16] Speaker 3: Well, even though there's a great number of redundancies in Air Force One, there are some things, of course, that you can't overlook. For example, if they had control surface issues, if there were anything on the controls where they had any kind of problem at all, controlling the nose up, nose down, ailerons turning, any kind of control surface issue might require them to turn around and go back. And then there are some warnings that you simply, you can't ignore. If you get certain warnings on the engines, if you have any kind of indication that there's any kind of problem with the fuel, that's highly unlikely. But the Air Force One, when I was inspector general, we actually had an issue where we had to get some bogus parts off of Air Force One. And it is an aircraft and there are warnings on that 747 that cannot be ignored. But this has to be one of the most, best maintained planes in the world, but there are things on every aircraft where when that warning light comes on, you have to seek, you have to turn around, go back and address it. So it's possible if they had any kinds of warnings like that, despite the great number of redundancies, there are some things that do require you to return to the airport as soon as possible.

[00:08:34] Speaker 1: And these things do happen. I've seen it happen many a time. So even on the most watched plane in the entire world. We're gonna bring back in Kristen Holmes because my understanding, Kristen, is that you have some new information. Kristen, what are you learning?

[00:08:48] Speaker 2: Yeah, so we finally got that pull note that we were talking about from the reporters on the plane. And also we've seen that now they've posted it to their rapid response page. But essentially what it says in the pull note here is it says an urgent update. After takeoff, the crew of Air Force One identified a, quote, minor electrical issue. And out of an abundance of caution, we are turning around, landing at Joint Base Andrews, and boarding a new aircraft. And that came from the press secretary, Carolyn Levitt, to the pool. They did note, this was a note from the pooler to the entire pool, that the lights in the press cabin went out briefly after takeoff, but no explanation was offered. Again, as we've discussed, this is going to delay their arrival. But one question I can now answer for you, Abby, is that they are expected to land back at Andrews in about 20, or no, now it's seven minutes at 11 p.m. And then again, they'll have to deplane, get the bags off the plane, reboard, and then they'll be on their way to Zurich.

[00:09:46] Speaker 1: Kristen, thank you for that. I'm gonna bring Mary back in, because Mary, I'm curious, when you hear minor electrical issue, what brings, and also that detail about the lights going out in the press cabin at the back of the plane, what does that bring to your mind?

[00:10:03] Speaker 3: Well, any kind of electrical issue can be of tremendous concern, because again, while lots of, you know, all the equipment, to the extent possible, has backups, in some cases, there's not just one backup, but two or three backups. If you're having an electrical issue on the plane, it can affect so many different parts of the plane, so many different circuits, so many different things, that truly what the message says from the plane, out of an abundance of caution, they really have to do that, because the last thing, you know, one of the things that's very difficult to survive when you're halfway across the ocean is if you have an electrical problem, any kind of electrical failure, an electrical, you know, a fire, that is something that literally overrides everything else.