Uh, Folks, This Is the White House Again ...

The White House offered its third version Thursday of a story about a pilot who spotted Air Force One while it flew to Iraq, saying the British accent of a pilot had led the Air Force One crew to think it was a British Airways flight.

The London area air traffic control center, known as the National Air Traffic Services, said Thursday that it was not a British Airways pilot who spotted the president’s plane, but it did not identify which airline was involved.

“The pilot of the aircraft asked whether the aircraft behind was Air Force One,” the London control center said in a statement released by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. “After consulting the flight plan of those aircraft in the sector at that time, the center responded that the aircraft was a Gulfstream 5.”

The White House said Thursday that for security reasons, a falsified flight plan was filed identifying Air Force One as the Gulfstream, a much smaller plane.

McClellan described the step as a reasonable security precaution for the surprise visit, which was made to boost the morale of U.S. troops.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman William Shumann, asked about the legality of filing an inaccurate flight plan, said, “We can’t discuss anything related to that flight.”

On Tuesday, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett had said a British Airways plane radioed the tower in London and reported the apparent sighting. Bartlett had earlier left the incorrect impression that the conversation took place between a British Airways pilot and the pilot of Air Force One, Col. Mark Tillman.