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White House Briefly Evacuated
AP ^
| June 19, 2002
| AP
Posted on 06/19/2002 6:57:33 PM PDT by SBeck
White House Briefly Evacuated
The Associated Press
Jun 19 2002 9:11PM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House was briefly evacuated Wednesday night after a small plane failed to make radio contact with Reagan National Airport as it flew over the capital, officials said.
An F-16 military jet was scrambled and tracked the plane until it landed at the airport in Richmond, Va., law-enforcement and aviation officials said.
The evacuation was ordered 20 minutes after President Bush returned to the building from a Republican fund-raising event at the Washington Convention Center.
Bush remained in the White House throughout the evacuation, a senior administration official said.
Law enforcement officials said a Cessna plane was flying southwest in restricted airspace over the capital and failed to make radio contact with the control towers at Reagan National Airport. The plane then changed direction, prompting the Secret Service to end the evacuation.
In response, at least one F-16 was scrambled and tracked the plane until it landed, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Within 15 minutes of the evacuation, staff was allowed to return to the building.
It was the first evacuation of the White House since Sept. 11, when the building was thought to be a target of one of the hijacked jetliners used in the attack on New York and Washington.
The evacuation occurred just hours after a separate incident in which the nearby Federal Reserve building was evacuated because of a suspicious package, which turned out to be harmless.
TOPICS: Breaking News; Government
KEYWORDS: evacuation
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To: AmericanInTokyo
LOL...
"...come toward the light...."
To: AmericanInTokyo
NATO AWACS have gone home. Rumsfeld was in Germany almost two weeks ago thanking them for their service.
To: SMEDLEYBUTLER
They are apparantly still here with AWACS.
To: SMEDLEYBUTLER
ANG F-16s from 121st FS at Andrews also scrambled. But not before the Germans went up with AWACs.
To: AmericanInTokyo
Ari Fleischer just confirmed that the plane that was scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base arrived after the plane entered and exited the White House space. Just as the planes scrambled on 9-11 arrived after the plane crashed into the Pentagon. In the nine months since the original attack, why hasn't a system been put into place to get a plane into the air to intercept?
--Raoul
To: SBeck
this story is being beaten to death. It happend, they took care of it...nothing came of it...let's move on! Yipes!
To: OldFriend
"Are you really Rush Limbaugh...?" You are relentless in yer RushBashin', OldFriend...kinda endearing, I guess.
FReegards...MUD
To: RDangerfield
I dont know but I would say the terrorists have just successfully tested one of our vulnerabilities (there are hundreds of others) even if it was by a fluke by a chap who got lost and did not know what he was doing.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
We haven't learned a damned thing.
To: SBeck
"This is a test. It is only a test. Should this have been an actual emergency, you would be instructed to tune to your local emergency broadcast station".
To: fivecatsandadog
Interesting update on the story
here
To: RoughDobermann
Yeah, that was an interesting update. Get ready for the tinfoils saying that it was a "planned penetration" in order to ratchet up the security zone around the White House.
51
posted on
06/20/2002 11:54:10 AM PDT
by
SBeck
To: RoughDobermann
Thanks for the link.
11 minutes after being notified of the potential threat by NORAD. A lot of damage could happen within 11 minutes.
To: AmericanInTokyo
Rumsfeld spoke of their service in the past tense. I'm pretty sure he would have mentioned it if any NATO crews, which are multinational not just German, were still deployed to the States. If you've got a link to a source saying different, I'd appreciate seeing it. It was announced in late April that they were returning to Europe. The E-3 would already have been airborne.
Rumsfeld thanks NATO AWACS troops
To: SMEDLEYBUTLER
It is the case he thanked them for their service. But one NATO aircraft, a E-3B, still took off in the p.m. hours heading northeast prior to the cross over into the no-fly NOTAM zone. Rather they were in connection with surveillance or not is not clear. The question is, who notified NORAD?
Did the name of this pilot ever get released?
Meant to ask: "Who informed FAA?"
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