AIR Force Two was forced to return due to a “technical issue” just 30 minutes after Kamala Harris took off on Sunday for her first international trip as vice president.
Harris is traveling to Guatemala and Mexico even as she is criticized for not having traveled to the US border in the months since President Joe Biden tipped her as border czar.
The plane returned safely back to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland shortly after 3pm EST.
The technical issue is said to have involved “no major safety concerns.”
The vice president gave reporters a thumbs-up as she arrived safely back on the tarmac.
“I’m good, I’m good. We all said a little prayer, but we’re good,” Harris said after disembarking the plane.
She was schedueled to depart again on another plane in an hour’s time.
“It is a technical issue. There are no major safety concerns,” Harris’s spokesperson Symone Sanders told reporters traveling with the vice president.
They reportedly heard an “unusual sound” which appeared to be coming from the landing gear as the plane took off, DailyMail.com reports.
There were no reported issues on landing.
Harris has said her trip to Mexico and Guatemala will help her get to the “root” of the current crisis on the US border.
She has already spoken to both Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on the phone.
Harris is traveling to Guatamala first where she will sit down with Giammattei on Monday.
She is also schedueld to engage in events with Guatemalan community leaders and entrepreneurs.
The Vice President will travel to Mexico City on Tuesday.
There she will meet with President López Obrador and participate in roundtables with women entrepreneurs and labor leaders.
The White House has said that the goal of the trip is to show the two nations that the US cares about finding long-term solutions to immigration.
It has said there is no intention to roll-out a plan to deal with the large surge in thousands of migrants that are currently crossing the US border.
Republicans, especially local lawmakers living along the border, have called on Harris to visit the area while she is in Mexico.
Yet the White House has confirmed that she will not be visiting the US side of the border during the trip.
