Cessna Put Homeland Defense to Test

When a single-engine Cessna strayed into restricted airspace near the White House on Wednesday night, the errant pilot may have exposed a gap in the post-Sept. 11 protections for the president.

Officials on Thursday downplayed the otherwise harmless incident, which prompted a partial White House evacuation, although it did not include President Bush.

But Pentagon officials acknowledged that two F-16 fighters failed to reach the small aircraft in time to prevent it from crashing into the White House--had that been the pilot’s intention.

The incident raised questions about the adequacy of the restricted airspace over downtown Washington. Some suggested that the space should be expanded, and that perhaps full-time combat patrols should be deployed over the capital, as occurred immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Those patrols were discontinued this year.

But White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer dismissed such concerns, saying that “multiple levels of protection” were in place for the executive mansion. He refused to provide details, such as whether antiaircraft guns were positioned atop the White House--long a local legend.

“There was never a threat to the president,” he said of Wednesday’s incident.

Indeed, even as reporters in the West Wing and construction workers on the South Lawn were ordered to leave the grounds, Secret Service agents inside the White House opted not to disturb Bush and his wife, Laura.

The Bushes, who had returned moments earlier from a Republican fund-raiser across town, were not told of the potential threat, which was briefly declared after the small aircraft entered restricted airspace just before 8 p.m.

“The reason the president was neither told nor moved was because the judgment was made, accurately so, that the plane did not pose a threat,” Fleischer said. “I think it’s fair to say that, if the plane had continued on a different course or taken any different action from what the Secret Service knew it was taking, the Secret Service would have done differently.”

Nevertheless, the agency intends to “reevaluate” its procedures in light of the incident, spokesman Brian Marr said.

The ever-present concerns about the security of the White House--and its chief occupant--assumed new urgency after the terrorist attacks, in part because hijackers of a fourth commercial jetliner that crashed in western Pennsylvania may have been targeting the White House.

Wednesday’s incident was not the day’s only scare in the capital. Several hours earlier and only a few blocks away, a suspicious package prompted the evacuation of the Federal Reserve, leading to massive gridlock downtown at the start of afternoon rush hour.

And at the GOP fund-raiser, some reporters traveling with Bush found an unspent round of ammunition on the ground not far from where he had spoken. The cartridge was believed to have been lost by a law enforcement official and was turned over to the Secret Service, which is investigating.

The airplane incident, described by the FBI as a “navigational error,” began when the single-engine Cessna 182 approached the so-called temporary flight-restricted zone over Washington while trying to avoid bad weather during a flight from Gardner, Mass., to Raleigh, N.C., officials said.

The zone, set up after Sept. 11, bars private planes from flying within 15 miles of the Washington Monument, just across from the White House’s South Lawn, at altitudes below 18,000 feet. The Cessna not only penetrated the southeast portion of the restricted zone but at one point flew at 10,500 feet.

When the pilot did not respond immediately to the control tower at Washington’s Reagan National Airport, officials there alerted several federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Officials scrambled two F-16s from nearby Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland, the home of Air Force One. But by the time they reached the Cessna, the pilot already had contacted air controllers--for a weather update--and left the restricted zone after an estimated 12-minute intrusion. The closest the plane got to the White House was four miles, officials said.

When the F-16s reached the scene, the pilots established radio contact with the Cessna pilot and remained in communication to Richmond, Va. The Cessna landed there about 8:50 p.m. Officials did not release the names of the pilot or the lone passenger. They were questioned, found to be cooperative and released. The travelers took off Thursday morning from Richmond.

Within the temporary flight restriction zone is a so-called prohibited airspace area called P-56, covering a rectangular area roughly from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol. The Cessna did not enter that space, officials said.

Pentagon officials acknowledged that the incident highlighted the fact that fighter jets cannot necessarily arrive in time to stop a plane from reaching the airspace over the White House.

The only way to ensure full protection for the White House from the air is to expand the no-fly zone and perhaps deploy round-the-clock combat patrols, a senior defense official said.

The F-16s reacted within the required 15-minute response time after being alerted by the FAA, said Maj. Barry Venable, a spokesman for the defense command.

Wednesday’s incident was handled in such a low-key fashion upstairs at the White House residence that the president only learned about it Thursday morning, when briefed by an aide.

The vulnerability of the White House to an attack by a light aircraft was demonstrated in 1994, when a troubled Maryland man, Frank Corder, flew a stolen Cessna into a magnolia tree just outside President Clinton’s bedroom.

Corder was killed, but no one else was injured.

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Times staff writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and John Hendren contributed to this report.