Day after panic, D.C. ponders evacuation plan

The incident sparked a flurry of emergency activity throughout the capital, which was targeted on Sept. 11, 2001, and has been under a heightened state of alert since then.

Officers also rushed through the Supreme Court building and told staff to get into the basement. At the Treasury Department, people were moved across the street.

At the Capitol, several lawmakers said they fled after being told that a plane was just several minutes away.

The Cessna later landed at a small airport in Frederick, Md., where officials said the pilot reported his radio was not working. 

Police said the club had not authorized the pilot to use the Cessna.

False alarms have happened before. Two weeks ago an evacuation was ordered when a radar hit suggested a plane had entered the area. The hit turned out to be clouds.

In that evacuation, Bush and Cheney were escorted to a bunker under the White House.

‘This is not a drill’
At the Capitol Wednesday, armed security officers raced through the building shouting for people to leave. “This is not a drill,” guards yelled as they moved people away from the building.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., was on the Senate floor when police told him they needed to evacuate. “They said get out of here, so I ran. There’s no joking about this kind of stuff,” Shelby said.

FREE VIDEO Police comments May 11: Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer talks about the evacuation. MSNBC

House Speaker Dennis Hastert was on the House floor talking to members when the evacuation siren went off. He left quickly with his security detail.

Two large black armored SUVs often used by House and Senate leaders sped away from the Capitol.

“People were surprised. I was surprised,” said Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who was on the House floor.

“There was so much commotion in the gallery. People were yelling in the gallery. We thought something had happened in the gallery, and then the alarm came to evacuate.”

Order sent by pagers
Sarah Little, an aide to Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the order to evacuate came over the special pager devices that every congressional office has. “They said ... there is an imminent aircraft threat,” she said.

Washington’s Reagan National Airport has been closed to general aviation since the Sept. 11 attacks. In the 3½ years since then, hundreds of small planes have flown within the restricted airspace around the capital — a 15¾-mile radius around the Washington Monument.

However, it’s rare for fighter jets to be scrambled.

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