Two F-16 fighter jets briefly took to the sky over Washington on Monday after a small passenger aircraft violated the capital’s airspace restrictions, according to military officials.
A portion of the White House grounds was briefly evacuated during the incident.
The passenger plane — a Cessna 182 — was intercepted by the F-16s at 2:19 p.m. EST, a statement from the North American Aerospace Defense Command noted. The plane was escorted to an airport in nearby Manassas, Virginia, where it landed at 2:32 p.m. EST.
The Cessna pilot was a student pilot who initially took off from Warrenton, Virginia, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed.
The Secret Service will interview the pilot, a spokesman for the agency told CNN.
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(Source: CNN)
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8 Responses
If you think a cop in your rear view mirror is scary, imagine two F-16s.
Wow!!
There’s a big “no fly” zone over DC, and small planes get lost every so often. It isn’t so uncommon.
“Land that plane and come out with your hands up”!
I don’t understand, if he is a student, wouldn’t that mean that he had a teacher with him.
Now he surely shouldn’t need and more instruction. He flew with some F-16s, and kept in front of them.
@Anonimity86
Yeah…:
“Sir, please pull over… Or we will blow you out of the air”
I had a friend (pre-9/11) that accidentally flew into DC restricted air space and was escorted out by two F-16s like the story. He said that was really scary and not something he was going to do again!
Maybe it was meant to be a “photo-op” like when Airforce1 flew over NY …
#6, “He said that was really scary and not something he was going to do again!” Gee you have a really smart friend!