Less than two hours ago the Capitol Police ordered the evacuation of the US Capitol after spotting an aircraft that they said “posed a probable threat to the Capitol Complex”:
U.S. Capitol Police alert just now: “The USCP is tracking an aircraft that poses a probable threat to the Capitol Complex.”
Immediate evacuations ordered pic.twitter.com/I4oxv06jrG
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 20, 2022
The plane was reportedly not responding to any communications:
NEWS: I’m told there’s a “small plane that is not responding to communication” that has triggered the Capitol evacuation.
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) April 20, 2022
Well it ended up not being a threat after all.
It turned out to be our own military Golden Knights parachuting into the Nationals game for military appreciation day.
The US Capitol Police now says there’s no threat to the Capitol.
This plane was part of the military appreciation night at Nationals Park but the Department of Defense did not inform Capitol officials this was happening, per my sources.
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) April 20, 2022
Sooo…quite a nice show by the @USArmy #GoldenKnights before tonight’s @Nationals game. Except someone forgot to alert the Capitol Police about the low-flying plane from which they jumped. Capitol complex evacuated. Oy. pic.twitter.com/nC3X9pptrL
— Sue Kopen Katcef (@UMNewsie) April 20, 2022
It sure looks like someone dropped the ball on letting the Capitol know about this event. Some say Department of Defense, but Pelosi blames the FAA, calling the lapse OUTRAGEOUS:
Here’s the full statement from @SpeakerPelosi on the flyover scare: pic.twitter.com/mzb6LKTETO
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) April 21, 2022
What exactly was Pelosi going to do, call in the National Guard??? Yeah, right. We all know her track record on protecting the Capitol building and it’s as outrageous as this failure by the FAA and/or DOD.