Gremlin forces White House evacuation
Air Force fighter jets were scrambled and the White House was evacuated today after a blip on radar suggested an aircraft was about to enter restricted Washington airspace.
“It’s a false radar target,” said William Shumann, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
“When the fighters got to the location of the alleged violation, they found nothing.”
He said flocks of birds or atmospheric disturbances might have caused the false radar reading, which was initially thought to be a plane flying within five miles of restricted airspace around the White House.
“It’s one of those electronic gremlins that pops up, but there was no aircraft there,” he said.
President Bush was in London but Vice President Dick Cheney was spotted leaving the White House in a motorcade.
The evacuation was called off within 20 minutes, said Secret Service spokesman John Gill.
“It was deemed unnecessary when the airspace violation was determined to be a radar anomaly,” he said.
