"FAA's mix-ups blamed for panic at the Capitol"

Friday, July 9, 2004

FAA's mix-ups blamed for panic at the Capitol
By Alan Levin
USA TODAY


WASHINGTON - Poor communication and a failure by the Federal Aviation
Administration to follow its own rules led to last month's frantic
evacuation of the U.S. Capitol after a plane carrying the governor of
Kentucky was misidentified as a rogue aircraft.

Members of Congress criticized federal aviation and security officials
Thursday for the mix-ups that led officials to wrongly suspect Gov.
Ernie Fletcher's plane was on a terrorist mission. Fletcher flew to
Washington on June 9 to attend former president Ronald Reagan's funeral.


"I think we have a tragedy just waiting to happen," Rep. Jim Moran,
D-Va., said at a hearing on the incident before the House Aviation
Subcommittee. 

According to the subcommittee and the FAA:

   . FAA officials allowed Fletcher's plane to fly into secure airspace
around Washington, even though a device aboard the plane that identifies
it had malfunctioned. Private planes without the device, a transponder,
cannot be identified by radar and are not permitted near Washington.

   . An FAA official mistakenly told security officials from several
agencies that Fletcher's plane could be identified despite the
malfunctioning transponder. As a result, when the plane entered a
restricted zone about 30 miles around Washington, security officials did
not realize that the aircraft on their radar screens was Fletcher's. 

   . Adding to the confusion, security agencies such as U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement had lower-quality radar displays than
controllers, so Fletcher's plane appeared differently on the security
agency radars.

   . As Fletcher's plane neared Washington, an FAA official called the
tower at Washington Reagan National Airport to ask controllers whether
they could see the plane. The official could not get through because the
tower phone was busy.

"I regret that our agency contributed to the events that led to the
unnecessary evacuation of the U.S. Capitol, especially at a time when
the eyes of the country and the world were focused on President Reagan's
funeral," Linda Schuessler of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization told
the committee.

Since the incident, the FAA has upgraded the radars used at the National
Capital Region Coordination Center, where security agencies monitor
suspicious aircraft around Washington. Schuessler said the agency had
also taken several steps to improve controller training and would soon
propose making the restrictions around Washington permanent. 

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the controllers'
union, said its members handled Fletcher's flight normally and followed
proper procedures. The union blamed the incident on inadequate staffing.


The scare over Fletcher's plane prompted an unprecedented mass
evacuation of the Capitol. Tourists and dignitaries alike were told to
run for their lives by Capitol police officers.


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