As per local media sources, a plane carrying US military skydivers sparked a false alarm at the US Capitol, triggering an evacuation of the complex.
A military aircraft was wrongly flagged as a “probable threat” by the US Capitol Police on Wednesday evening. The jet was, in fact, carrying the US Army’s Golden Knights parachuting into a nearby Washington Nationals game.
The US Capitol Police, it appears, didn’t know.
CNN states the email subject of a Capitol Police notice released just after 6.30 p.m. stated, “Evacuate Now: Aircraft Intrusion.”
The email began, “The USCP is tracking an aircraft that poses a probable threat to the Capitol Complex”. Also, there were instructions for people at various places within the complex.
The Capitol Police turned up 20 minutes later to discover that there was no threat at all.
“The Capitol was evacuated out of an abundance of caution this evening. There is no threat at the Capitol,” the department sent out a tweet.
The trauma of the US Capitol riots and 9/11 were still fresh
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi condemned the FAA for the apparent mix-up, accusing them of “causing unnecessary panic.”
In a statement, Pelosi stated, “The Federal Aviation Administration’s apparent failure to notify Capitol Police of the pre-planned flyover Nationals Stadium is outrageous and inexcusable,”
“The unnecessary panic caused by this apparent negligence was particularly harmful for Members, staff, and institutional workers still grappling with the trauma of the attack on their workplace on January 6th,” the top House Democrat continued.
The House speaker went on to say that Congress would hold FAA officials “accountable” for the communication breakdown.
The false alert surprised some politicians and guests at the complex. The trauma of the Capitol riots and the 9/11 attacks was still fresh in everyone’s minds.
On Twitter, congressman Teresa Leger Fernandez stated, “We just went through a very stressful 15 minutes, but we are thankful that everyone is safe.”
CNN’s congressional correspondent Ryan Nobles was among those evacuated. He said “for a good 15 minutes it was pretty frantic.”
He tweeted, “The alarms were loud and intense, and Capitol Police were not messing around getting people out.”
