Melania Trump's Plane Forced To Turn Around And Return To Base After Smoke Filled The Cabin

 

A government plane carrying Melania Trump was forced to turn around Wednesday and return to an air base in Maryland after smoke filled the cabin.

 

Secret Service agents leapt from their seats 10 minutes into a morning flight and ran to the front of the aircraft.

 

'They're fine. I just spoke to her,' President Donald Trump said a few hours later on the Fox Business Network. 'They came back, she got on another plane.'

 

 

The first lady's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said shortly after the brief crisis was declared ovet that a 'minor mechanical issue' was to blame. No smoke was visible from the outside of the plane after it touched down.

 

 

Journalists on board said no one was hurt. 

 

The first lady calmly walked off the plane and got into a waiting SUV. A pool reporter said a second plane was made ready for takeoff within 50 minutes, and the first lady was on her way again.

 

She was headed to Philadelphia to address a hospital conference on neonatal abstinence syndrome, a condition that strikes infants who experience withdrawal from their mothers' use of narcotics while pregnant.

 

A press pool reporter on board said journalists 'could see a thin haze of smoke and smell something burning. The smell quickly became stronger.'

 

A crew member told the reporter that a 'malfunctioning comms unit' was to blame. The White House has not confirmed any details.

 

 

Melania's flight returned to Joint Base Andrews and landed safely at 9:05 a.m.

 

The plane was a C-32, the military's verison of the Boeing 757-200, and seats 45 people in First Class-style seats.  It's the same aircraft that is routinely used as  'Air Force Two' when Vice President Mike Pence travels outside Washington. 

 

On occasion a similar plane is used as a more compact version of Air Force One when presidents, including Donald Trump, fly to airports whose runways are too short to safely land the more familiar 747.

 

Grisham said Wednesday's plane was not the same one that took the first lady to Africa this month.

 

But it's a familiar sight to Melania: President Donald Trump also owns a 757-200, known as Trump Force One, which he used for campaign travel in 2015 and 2016.

 

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Source: Daily Mail UK