The US presidential aircraft made two low passes over the White House in Washington on the evening of Thursday 29 October 2026. The White House said the flight was meant to celebrate Halloween. The unexpected display startled some residents, The Washington Post reported1. The aircraft was the Boeing 747-8 gifted by Qatar23. It has served the US Air Force as the VC-25B Bridge since June 20264. Public ADS-B data show this aircraft, US Air Force serial 25-3300, flying low over the city that evening53.

Two passes at a few hundred feet

A video from the White House Rapid Response 47 account shows President Donald Trump waving outside the White House as the aircraft flies over. "An epic Air Force One flyover at the White House for the trick-or-treaters!", the account wrote1. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were handing out sweets to children in costume at the annual Halloween event, and midway through, Trump paused to watch the low flyover2.

According to ADS-B data from adsb.lol, the aircraft approached from the south over the Potomac at around 17:42 local time. At around 17:45 it passed the White House heading north at a barometric altitude of about 425 ft, as reported by its transponder. North of the White House it turned, and at around 17:47 it made the second pass in the opposite direction at about 400 ft. It then flew over the area around Reagan National Airport and headed back towards Joint Base Andrews5. During the flyover the aircraft transmitted the callsign FRDMM015. Using flight-tracking data, The Washington Post put its altitude over the city at roughly 400 to 1,000 ft1.

At 17:24 an AlertDC notification told people that the US military would conduct a flyover of the National Mall1. In a post on X, the Council of the District of Columbia said that anyone in downtown Washington, at the Pentagon or at National Airport had been given just fifteen minutes' notice of the flyover. "It startled many, including us," the council wrote16. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said the flyover was coordinated with the agency and that there was a brief ground stop at Reagan National to accommodate it1. On air traffic control recordings, one pilot asked at around 17:49: "How many more fly-bys is he doing?" A controller replied: "Hopefully that's the last"1.

Air Force One is a callsign

Air Force One is not a specific aircraft. It is the radio callsign used when the president is aboard any US Air Force aircraft7. During this flyover Trump was on the ground1. The Air Force fact sheet describes the presidential fleet as two specially configured Boeing 747-200Bs with tail numbers 28000 and 29000 and the designation VC-257. These aircraft are now referred to as VC-25As3. Their replacements, the VC-25Bs being built by Boeing, were originally due in 2024. The Air Force now expects them in 20288.

To relieve pressure on the ageing VC-25As, the US Department of War accepted a head-of-state-configured 747-8i from Qatar, and L3Harris carried out the modification. In May 2026 the Air Force said the modification and flight testing were complete8. In June 2026 the aircraft arrived at the Presidential Airlift Group at Joint Base Andrews. After a series of commissioning flights it was to become available for presidential flights alongside the VC-25A and C-32 fleets4. On 1 July 2026 the VC-25B Bridge flew as Air Force One for the first time, carrying Trump to North Dakota3.

How the airspace over Washington works

A low flight over Washington is rare: its airspace is more restricted than anywhere else in the United States1. The city is surrounded by the Washington DC Metropolitan Area Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA), a roughly circular area with a radius of 30 nautical miles. Pilots flying in it need an advance clearance from air traffic control, an operating altitude-encoding transponder and a discrete transponder code. Inside the SFRA lies the Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ), which extends about 15 nautical miles around Reagan National Airport9.

In the FRZ, flights under Part 91, Part 135 and several other parts are only allowed with an FAA/TSA authorisation. The rules make exceptions for Department of Defense operations, law enforcement operations, and lifeguard or air ambulance operations under an FAA/TSA airspace authorisation, provided the pilot is in contact with air traffic control and the transponder is on an assigned code10. Over the White House and the National Mall lies prohibited area P-56A, which extends up to 18,000 ft. Only specially authorised flights in direct support of the Secret Service, the Office of the President or one of several other government agencies may enter it9.

Earlier flyovers by the presidential aircraft

This was not the first flyover by a presidential aircraft over Washington. On 4 July 2026 the VC-25B Bridge took off from Joint Base Andrews for a flyover marking 250 years of the United States11. In August 2026, an Air Force photo caption described Air Force One flying with four F-22 Raptors over the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix at the National Mall12. A low pass by a presidential 747 over a city has caused alarm before. In April 2009 a Boeing 747 that functions as Air Force One when the president is aboard, accompanied by an F-16, flew low near the Statue of Liberty in New York for a photo shoot. Workers and residents evacuated buildings in New York and New Jersey. Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, apologised and said he took responsibility for the decision13.