Washington, April 20 (IANS) A plane carrying US first lady Michelle Obama had to abort landing after coming dangerously close to a military cargo aircraft at the Andrews Air Force Base, officials said.

The incident that took place Monday was due to a mistake by an air traffic controller, Xinhua reported citing the Federal Aviation Administration.

Michelle Obama was returning from a TV appearance with Vice President Joe Biden's wife Jill in New York and was onboard a Boeing 737.

The controllers at the tower at Andrews saw that a C-17 cargo plane and the Obama aircraft had reached far too close to each other, according to the Washington Post.

They asked the Obama plane to execute a series of "S-turns" to create a safe distance between it and the cargo plane, officials said.

When those manoeuvres failed to achieve the required distance between the two planes, they asked the Obama plane to abort landing and circle the airport.

The Obama plane landed safely later.