Posted on 11/20/2003 6:30:23 AM PST by William McKinley
More to come?
Blip on Radar Causes White House Evacuation
Thu November 20, 2003 10:25 AM ETWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A "blip" on a radar screen, rather than a plane, was responsible on Thursday for sending tourists and staff fleeing the White House in fear of another Sept. 11-style attack on the U.S. capital.
Gun-toting security guards hustled senior White House staff and school tours away from the home and offices of President Bush, who was in Britain at the time. They were allowed to return after the alarm was called off.
It later turned out to be a false alarm.
"There was never a plane. It was a blip on one radar," said the Federal Aviation Administration's spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler.
White House employees left the buildings but the Secret Service said there was not an official evacuation order.
As the incident unfolded, a guard brandishing a shotgun was on the sidewalk in front, cautioning people to stay away from the White House.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who has spent time in secret locations after the Sept. 11 attacks, was whisked away in a motorcade.
The evacuation came on the same day that two blasts in Istanbul killed at least 25 people, wrecking the British consulate and the headquarters of a bank.
Bad Radar Prompts White House Evacuation
WASHINGTON (AP) - At least part of the White House was evacuated Thursday after a false radar reading mistakenly indicated that a plane flew within five miles of restricted airspace around the complex, officials said.
"It's a false radar target," said William Shumann, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. "When the NORAD fighters got to the location of the alleged violation, they found nothing."
The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, is the command center for the defense of U.S. and Canadian airspace.
Shumann said flocks of birds or atmospheric disturbances can cause false radar returns. "It's one of those electronic gremlins that pops up, but there was no aircraft there."
Secret Service spokeswoman Jean Mitchell said there was no official evacuation. But White House staff members did leave the West Wing for a time Thursday morning.
An aide to President Bush said that staffers were told to go to a nearby street but were allowed to go back to their desks a short time later.
The president was traveling in Britain at the time. Many of his top aides also were on the trip and not in the building.
"The threat level was never raised," Mitchell said.
On Nov. 10, Air Force fighter jets scrambled to intercept a private plane that flew too close to the White House. The plane was later determined not to be a threat.
The president was away then, also, on a trip to Arkansas and South Carolina.
Flight Service has even let pilots file flight plans into airports currently in the restricted area and the poor pilots are paying the price for blundering into it with approval of ATC. You can't even fly out of one of these airports without a special background check and a special flight plan and transponder code.
Some pilots have even had their tickets suspended because of this ATC incompetency.
LOL, my hubby said this morning that he was going to volunteer me to go into the military as a WMD.
I don't know. What could a plane do the World Trade Center?
That would be good. Then all the Bush-haters who say he is "after oil", etc., and that "he's no conservative" would go back to liking him. National Security is for liberals, I guess.
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