Oh - and notice the coincidental date that this happened in 1994!!
1. At 2 a.m. National Airport tower personnel are not very busy, since the airport doesn't have any scheduled flights after midnight, anyway. But it's certainly not an assignment that someone in the tower keep his eyes glued to a radar screen for the occasional bird at that hour. The tower is not responsible for the air defense of Washington.
2. If the pilot was intent on suicide why did he try to land on the White House lawn. Why not simply crash down from the sky? What is more likely is that he was trying to do a stunt like Matias Rust did landing in Moscow's Red Square. So he comes down quietly with landing lights off and touches down on the lawn and then encounters a row of bleachers set up for the morning AmeriCorp gathering. He's forced with power off to leap back into the sky, clears the bleachers and stalls smacking into wall of the White House.
1. At 2 a.m. National Airport tower personnel are not very busy, since the airport doesn't have any scheduled flights after midnight, anyway. But it's certainly not an assignment that someone in the tower keep his eyes glued to a radar screen for the occasional bird at that hour. The tower is not responsible for the air defense of Washington.
2. If the pilot was intent on suicide why did he try to land on the White House lawn. Why not simply crash down from the sky? What is more likely is that he was trying to do a stunt like Matias Rust did landing in Moscow's Red Square. So he comes down quietly with landing lights off and touches down on the lawn and then encounters a row of bleachers set up for the morning AmeriCorp gathering. He's forced with power off to leap back into the sky, clears the bleachers and stalls smacking into wall of the White House.