It was just over a year ago that the pilot of "Obama One", as the presidential candidate's aircraft was dubbed, went through an extraordinary drama high above the clouds shortly after takeoff.
After leaving Chicago, an evacuation slide mysteriously inflated in the plane's tail section, preventing the flaps that controlled the aircraft's pitch from functioning properly. As he struggled with the controls of the elderly McDonnell Douglas, the pilot ordered an emergency landing.
The 27-year-od MD-80 aircraft, then diverted to St Louis and as it descended the pilot regained control of the flaps allowing the plane to land normally.
Unaware how close to disaster he had been, Mr Obama drily remarked: "Just thought we'd spice things up a bit today."
With him on the plane were 50 members of his campaign team, members of the press and the flight crew.
A report released by the National Transportation Safety Board this weekend has revealed that the airborne drama was much more serious than the preliminary reports at the time showed. The inflated slide appears to have pressed against cables that control the plane's pitch causing it to shoot upwards at a 25 degree angle instead of a normal 20 degrees.
The momentum from the plane's takeoff was of "sufficient magnitude and duration" to cause the slide's cover to open and activate its inflation cylinder, the NTSB report said. The slide is covered with a cone that forms the hind-most part of the fuselage.
The pilot of the MD-80 called in an emergency to air traffic control 41 seconds after losing control. Once the plane reached a lower altitude, the slide deflated somewhat as the pressure changed and the pilot regained control to land.
The MD-80s series planes are some of the oldest aircraft that US and European airlines fly. Noisy and inefficient, they remain the workhorses of the airline industry. None are less than 18 years old.
An internal Secret Service investigation found that no agents "interfered with or altered the aircraft's hardware or systems" during their inspections and that the "plane had flown 15 flight legs since the last service check" of the emergency landing gear.
Shortly afterwards, the Obama campaign switched to a refurbished Boeing 757, with his rising sun logo on the tail.