On Monday, a White House plane carrying First Lady Michelle Obama aborted its landing at Andrews Air Force Base after it came dangerously close to a military cargo jet, according to federal officials.

The presidential plane was supposed to land at Andrews Air Force Base but controllers feared that a 200-ton C-17 military cargo jet would not clear the runway in time for the White House plane to land.

Because an airplane’s wake causes severe turbulence and can even cause a plane that enters the wake to crash, the FAA has strict rules on how much distance there needs to be between planes.

Air traffic controllers in the tower at Andrews recognized that the C-17 military cargo jet and Obama’s plane were far too close.

Federal officials said that Obama’s plane was ordered to make a series of S-turns in order to create a safe distance between it and the C-17. These maneuvers failed to create enough distance. Therefore, they aborted the landing of Obama’s plane and ordered it to circle the airport.

“The manager and tower controller at Andrews did several things to try to increase the separation on final [approach] before ordering a go-around,” a senior FAA manager told The Washington Post.

The manager said that the controller exhibited “really bad controller technique.”

“Not only did he get them too close, he told the [Andrews controller] that they were farther apart then they were,” he said.

“In the grand scheme of things, events like this happen fair frequently,” said another official to The Washington Post. “Unfortunately, this one involves a presidential plane.”