Related News
Lockdown for White House in safety scare
The White House and US Congress were locked down for nearly an hour on Tuesday over a suspected airspace intrusion over Washington, but hours later officials still had no explanation for what triggered the alert.
Major Andrew Hennessy, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said “a track of interest” appeared on radars early Tuesday, sparking concern.
“Something that gave off a signature that our radar registered” set off the alert, he said.
A US Coast Guard helicopter deployed by NORAD to investigate what appeared to be an unidentified aircraft nearing tightly controlled Washington airspace found nothing.
Hennessy declined to comment on speculation that a flock of birds may have triggered the alert.
Hennessy also said an earlier NORAD tweet that said fighter jets had been scrambled to intercept the threat was incorrect.
The fighter jets reported were part of a previously scheduled exercise by the 113th Wing, District of Columbia Air National Guard unit based at Joint Base Andrews, just outside Washington.
“It just happened to be at the same time. They were not involved in the interception,” said a spokesperson for Andrews.
The White House was locked down for nearly an hour due to what the US Secret Service described as “a potential violation of the restricted airspace in the National Capital Region.”
There was no information about what President Donald Trump and his wife Melania did during the alert.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
- RSS
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证:沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证:31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证:0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证:沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证:沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.