White House airspace incident was false alarm
 |
Security personnel block off the streets Thursday in front of the White House.
Story Tools
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
|
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.
Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
|
|
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Secret Service began and then stopped an evacuation of the White House on Thursday after a "radar anomaly" indicated a plane might have entered restricted air place.
John Gill of the Secret Service said after it was determined that the alert had been caused by the radar problem, the evacuation was called off.
Officials initially believed that a small aircraft had entered and then left the restricted area around the White House.
Two F-16 fighters were scrambled from nearby Andrews Air Force Base in response to the alert.
Sources told CNN that upon further investigation it was believed that the anomaly was caused by "a flock of birds."
The North American Air Defense command said it would not say what caused the false alarm, but fighters were scrambled early as a precaution. The fighters remained on the patrol for several hours after the alert was canceled.
NORAD has responded to nearly 1,600 alerts nationwide since September 11, 2001, a spokesman said.
CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash and Pentagon correspondent Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.
