Philadelphia – Jim Sheaffer set out Wednesday from Smoketown Airport in Lancaster, Pa., with a new map and a student pilot in a two-seater Cessna, bound for a fun-filled weekend.
They took off at 10:58 a.m. EDT, flying south to an air show in Lumberton, N.C.
Just 58 minutes later, the first Black Hawk helicopter pulled alongside.
They had taken a wrong turn – a really wrong turn – and wound up throwing much of the nation’s capital into a panic.
As the pilots entered restricted airspace around Washington, triggering the launch of the Black Hawks, followed by F-16 fighter jets, the White House and Capitol were evacuated.
About 50 students from a Denver charter elementary were in Sen. Wayne Allard’s office when the evacuation took place. Staffers calmly told the children from KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy that it was like a fire drill.
“You don’t want to freak them out, because they’re fifth-graders,” said Sean Conway, the Colorado Republican’s chief of staff. “They thought it was a neat adventure.”
President Bush was bicycling in a suburban wildlife preserve at the time, but Vice President Dick Cheney, first lady Laura Bush and former first lady Nancy Reagan, at the White House for a special event, were evacuated to a secure location.
After initially penetrating the 30-mile “air defense identification zone,” the two men in the aircraft, Sheaffer, of Lititz, Pa., and Troy Martin of Akron, Pa., eventually flew inside a 16-mile restricted “red zone.”
They got within 3 miles of the White House before the Black Hawks escorted them away.
Though the government determined the incident was an accident, the FAA could suspend or revoke their pilot certificates.
