|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
US military had OK to shoot errant plane
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the military to shoot down, if necessary, a small plane that prompted the evacuation of the White House and the U.S. Capitol, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. Homeland Security and military aircraft tried for 11 minutes to intercept the Cessna 150 on May 11, which military officials never considered to be a threat. But White House and Capitol officials grew more alarmed as the plane came within three miles of the White House, according to the report citing two senior federal officials. One of the officials told the newspaper the Cessna came within "15 to 20 seconds" of being shot down before it turned away from the city. The newspaper said the new details were also corroborated by a senior federal law enforcement official and come amid a review of the Washington area air defense system established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Pilot Hayden "Jim" Sheaffer told NBC on Tuesday he thought he was going to be "shot out of the sky." Two F-16 fighter jets fired four flares to get the pilot's attention before escorting the propeller aircraft to nearby Frederick, Maryland. The Federal Aviation Administration revoked Sheaffer's license for one year. Troy Martin, a student pilot who was at the controls during the incident, was not disciplined. Sheaffer said he knew they were in restricted space when he saw a Black Hawk helicopter, adding that he was unable to communicate on the radio frequency indicated by the helicopter pilot. Sheaffer, of Lititz, Pennsylvania, will appeal the license revocation. His lawyer, Mark McDermott, said he believed Sheaffer was being made a scapegoat because of the publicity surrounding the evacuations. On Monday military jets intercepted another small plane that strayed into restricted airspace around Washington, but the incident triggered no frantic security response on the ground. |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
