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Margeinal or something below that, or anything that creates turbulence or a real disaster there, so you give yourself an added advantage of space and make sure there is nothing that is is complicated and the last thing you want to do is to have the first lady looking out the lady as you do s-turns on final trying to develop space when there isn't enough. >> so real quickly, when you see another plane out your window, we shouldn't worry, is that what you are saying? >> no. no, not at all. i would suspect that is a common occurrence because we have more and more airports with parallel runways an...

And it is designed to be flexible so that the air can still be safe, even the separation is compromised. >> here in this case, warrington told andrews that it was five miles when it was really three miles. granted that's not all that close. but when you talk about the turbulence that can take place with the c-17, that's kicking up a lot of air. >> it does. it ceases when the c-17 is on the ground. and when the airplane is on the ground, especially an airplane of that size, it owns the runway and they take a lot of time to get off of the runway. and if the controllers see that the separation is...

Plane sped up. the separation was reduced. what pilots typically do is a series of s-turns and that will expand the time it takes for the aircraft to travel a straight line distance. they were trying to do that. they didn't have it so they went around. martha: but this kind of situation as trace gallagher pointed out, this is a similar situation to what happened in new york to taken airplane not long after september 11. it got caught in wake turbulence. i pick tight as being behind a big boat it's potentially devastating as it was in that huge crash. >> that's an excellent example. people can ...

Air traffic controllers who were handling the flights allowed the planes to get too close. the required distance is five miles. the planes were just three miles apart. >> if an airplane is too close behind another airplane, these small tornados that come off of the airplane in front can actually upset the airplane flying behind and cause the airplane flying behind to lose control. >> reporter: when faa controllers at andrews realized the planes were too close, they asked the first lady's pilot to execute a series of s-turns in order to slow down an build more distance between them. >> 6,000. 6...

Andrews air force base. air traffic controllers at the approach control facility in the washington, d.c. area were handling mrs. obama's plane. a boeing 737. code named executive one foxtrot. also in the skies, a giant c-17 military cargo plane. controllers apparently allowed the planes to get too close. the required separation is five miles apart but mrs. obama's plane flew within three mimes of the cargo plane. the distance is important. >> if an airplane is too close behind another airplane these small tornados that come off of the airplane in front can actually upset the airplane flying be...