- Vance’s chartered 737 was forced to return to Milwaukee after a door problem.
- It made an emergency landing before taking off again toward Cincinnati.
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JD Vance’s campaign plane was forced to make an emergency landing after an in-flight malfunction Friday afternoon.
The chartered Boeing 737 was forced to return to Milwaukee, where Donald Trump’s running mate had earlier appeared accompanied by local police officers.
“The pilot reported there was an issue with the door seal. After declaring an emergency, Trump Force Two returned to Milwaukee,” spokeswoman Taylor Van Kirk said.
“Once the issue was resolved, the aircraft returned to its originally planned flight route to Cincinnati.”
JD Vance uses a chartered 737, nicknamed Trump Force Two, to travel between events. He is seen here in Wisconsin speaking to reporters last week.
Cincinnati is the Ohio senator’s home base and he has been making day trips to campaign events.
From there, he has been touring battleground states in the 737, with key staff, Secret Service agents and a handful of journalists, since being named as Trump’s vice president pick.
On Friday he was also accompanied by his wife Usha and his dog Atlas.
Photojournalist Asher Heimermann, who witnessed the landing, said the Milwaukee County Fire Department was on scene and inspected the plane before it took off again toward its intended destination.
The traffic scanner revealed that there were 43 people on board.
While Trump travels in his own private Boeing 757, equipped with a sleeping area and a state-of-the-art music system, Vance’s trip is more prosaic.
It features two rows of seating along its length, complemented by a pair of conference tables.
The plane’s tail is covered with the names of donors, and the interior is decorated with campaign slogans (such as “Drain the swamp of corruption in Washington”).
Last week, the plane took off minutes after Kamala Harris’ Air Force Two in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, sparking a standoff on the tarmac. Vance and his entourage headed there to see if he could speak with the vice president.
The plane has been decorated with campaign details, including donors’ names on the tail.
Vance speaks to reporters on his plane during a campaign trip to Virginia last month.
On Friday, Vance received the endorsement of the Milwaukee Police Association.
“I just wanted to see my future plane,” he joked later.
It is the latest aviation problem affecting the campaign.
On Friday, Trump’s plane was forced to divert during a trip to Montana due to a mechanical problem. He landed in Billings, where the former president changed planes to continue his trip to Bozeman, where he held a rally.
It later emerged that she had been travelling on a private jet once owned by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.