JD Vance’s Plane Makes Emergency Landing in Milwaukee
A chartered campaign plane carrying Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, was forced to make an emergency landing in Milwaukee on Friday shortly after takeoff because of a door malfunction on the aircraft, a campaign spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman, Taylor Van Kirk, said that the aircraft, a Boeing 737-86J that the campaign refers to as Trump Force Two, returned to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, where the problem was quickly resolved before the flight continued to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
“The pilot advised there was a malfunction with the door seal,” Ms. Van Kirk said in a statement.
It was the second time in a week that one of the Trump campaign’s planes had a mechanical issue. Last Friday, former President Donald J. Trump’s Boeing 757 had to divert to Billings, Mont., while he was en route to a rally in Bozeman, Mont., because of an unspecified issue. He completed the journey on a charter aircraft.
This week, Mr. Vance went to Wisconsin to deliver remarks to the Milwaukee Police Association, a union of about 1,500 members that endorsed the Republican ticket.
He was traveling with his wife, Usha, along with a group of advisers, Secret Service agents and journalists, including a reporter from The New York Times — and his German shepherd, Atlas. The flight landed around 4 p.m. Eastern time near Cincinnati, where the Vances live.
About four minutes after the plane took off from Milwaukee, the pilot asked passengers over the intercom to fasten their seatbelts and said that the plane would be immediately returning to the airport. Secret Service agents aboard the plane reacted with confusion and laughter, and it was not immediately clear to some passengers that