Army says it notified FAA of flight that triggered Capitol evacuation

WASHINGTON - The planned jump by four U.S. Army parachutists into Nationals Park on Wednesday evening was supposed to be a fun spectacle for baseball fans on a beautiful spring night at the stadium. Instead, it turned into a fearful fiasco a mile away, for staff and visitors at the U.S. Capitol, as they received an order to evacuate the complex immediately because an unidentified plane had been detected circling above.

A day later, authorities were still trying to figure out how and why the U.S. Capitol Police didn't know that the Army plane would be in the restricted airspace near the Capitol. No leader or agency took responsibility for the potentially dangerous error, which caused people to flee the Capitol's offices and public spaces a little after 6:30 p.m.

But some, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did point fingers - at the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA would not answer questions Thursday. But the airspace the Army plane circled through is some of the most closely watched in the nation, and the communication breakdown over Wednesday's flight marked a significant stumble, former FAA officials said.

The plane, carrying members of the Golden Knights parachute team to the stadium, was in what the FAA calls the Flight-Restricted Zone, which stretches about 15 nautical miles around Reagan National Airport. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, pilots were required to obtain special advance permission to enter that airspace.

By all accounts, the Army plane had the FAA's formal green light.

"We have confirmed that the parachute team filed all appropriate and required Federal Aviation Administration documentation and received FAA approval prior to operating within the National Capitol Region's airspace," Kelli LeGaspi, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said in a statement. "The team also confirmed the pilots established and maintained communication with the FAA prior to and throughout the operation."

Maj. Andrew Scott, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which monitors the nation's airspace, said that when an aircraft violates that airspace, the FAA requests NORAD's assistance. But, in this case, there was no need to check out the Army plane. "From our perspective, it's my understanding that that aircraft was allowed to be there," Scott said.

That the Capitol Police were not on the same page - and not notified that the Army plane had permission to fly - represents the type of interagency disconnect that federal officials have spent years trying to prevent. The risks of such potential security breakdowns were underscored in 2015, when a Florida postal worker flew his gyrocopter through the same restricted airspace and landed at the U.S. Capitol to make a political point. FAA officials were part of an interagency effort to improve communications following that incident.

"All that triggered a massive review of the notifications systems," said a former senior FAA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. "It's inexplicable there wasn't a notice to the Capitol security apparatus of a waiver for someone to fly in and around the capital. They do that all the time."

The Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to emailed questions about whether they were aware of the plane's flight plan. The White House complex was not evacuated.

Data from FlightAware, the flight-tracking website, showed the Army plane departed from Joint Base Andrews at 6:09 p.m. Wednesday and returned 41 minutes later.

Pelosi blamed the FAA on Wednesday evening for not alerting the Capitol Police. In a statement, she called the failure to notify the police department "inexcusable."

Pelosi said Congress would look at the results of a "thorough after-action review" to determine "what precisely went wrong today and who at the Federal Aviation Administration will be held accountable for this outrageous and frightening mistake."

The Capitol Police didn't specifically mention the FAA in its statement Thursday, but it did say that every week "the USCP is made aware of hundreds of authorized flights in the restricted airspace. It is extremely unusual not to be made aware of a flight in advance."

Kenneth Quinn, an aviation attorney at the law firm Clyde & Co, and a former FAA chief counsel, said caution is warranted at the outset of an investigation into any aircraft incident, since early information is often wrong.

"It's particularly untoward for anyone to be blasting the FAA at such an early stage of an after-action evaluation," said Quinn, who also serves as general counsel at the nonprofit Flight Safety Foundation. This case is complex, given the mix of U.S. military and other federal entities and interests, he said.

"You have to look at the evidence and have independent confirmation of those who are attempting to exonerate themselves so early on," Quinn said. "The important point here is to learn from these breakdowns and enhance coordination for the future, and not to point fingers."

Although the aircraft incident ended without serious repercussions, it shook staff and visitors at the Capitol complex.

Nathan Gonzales, 44, was having a picnic with family and friends near the Russell Senate Office Building on Wednesday evening when one of his sons noticed a small plane flying low and slowly toward the Capitol.

"It looked out of place. Having lived in Washington for 22 years, it was just not a place where a plane should be," said Gonzales, who is the editor and publisher of Inside Elections and lives about 12 blocks from the Capitol.

Gonzales said it was jarring that the plane kept coming around and making multiple passes. "We were wondering, why is nothing being done to stop this plane?" he said.

At that moment, Gonzales said, a law enforcement officer told them to clear the area because of the plane. As they began to pick up their chairs and food, the officer insisted they leave everything and head north toward Union Station.

"I literally thought my kids were going to watch a plane fly into the Capitol dome or get shot down," Gonzales said.

A day after the incident, Gonzales said he was relieved the incident turned out the way it did but still worries about the lack of communication that allowed it to happen in the first place.

Eireann Dolan, 36, was walking down C Street NE around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with her two Australian cattle dog mixes, Fee and Roo. As she crossed the street toward the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Dolan said, she saw police running toward the area, directing cars away and blocking streets. She also saw police cars with lights on, pulling up from different directions.

Dolan continued on her walk, thinking it could be a drill, only to be met by more than a dozen people quickly exiting the Dirksen building. "It just didn't look right," she said. "They looked panicked."

Dolan asked one of the women coming out of the building whether everything was OK, but she was quickly told to turn around. "We are being told to evacuate immediately," Dolan recalled the woman telling her.

The woman showed Dolan a message she received on her phone about a "probable threat" and an "aircraft intrusion" as the two were running away from the building. Dolan immediately texted her husband, Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle, that she was running home and to track her location.

"Something about an aircraft," she explained.

"There's a flyover for our game tonight with parachuters - military appreciation night," Doolittle texted back from Nationals Park. "But I don't think they'd evacuate for that?"