Officials weighed shooting down D.C. plane

Bush trusts security detail
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that a review of how the situation was handled was being conducted. But he said Bush was not upset that he was not filled in.

“The president has a great amount of trust in his security detail,” McClellan said. “If there are any improvements that need to be made, they will be made.”

Immediately after the Cessna entered the restricted 30-mile radius Air Defense Identification Zone at 11:28 a.m. EDT, authorities activated the Domestic Events Network to share information as they tracked the plane. The network, a conference call of officials from the Homeland Security Department, Customs and Border Protection, the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration and a handful of other agencies, lasted until the Cessna landed just over an hour later.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was apprised of the situation as it unfolded. He is among a small handful of top Pentagon officials who can order a shootdown. The president also may give such an order.

Pentagon officials sought to play down the incident, saying the small plane was not seen as a serious threat and did not come close to being shot down. Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse declined to comment on how close it was.

Brian Jenkins, counterterrorism analyst for the RAND Corp. think tank, agreed the threat from the Cessna was limited.

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“The quantity of explosives that you can pack in a little Cessna is not the quantity of explosives you see placed in these big truck bombs,” Jenkins said. “In terms of explosives, it probably could not do that much damage.”

However, government officials also had to consider the possibility it was carrying chemical or biological weapons. A relatively small amount of either could have devastating effects.

Customs officials scrambled a Black Hawk helicopter and a Cessna Citation jet at 11:47 a.m. to intercept the plane and were joined a few minutes later by two Air National Guard F-16 fighter jets.

The Cessna pilot appeared confused by the aircraft escort and did not respond to repeated signals ordering the plane to turn away. The F-16s fired four warning flares before the Cessna finally veered west and away from the secure zone. They landed safely at an airport in Frederick, Md.

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