False alarms evacuate White House, Fed building WASHINGTON (AP) =97 The White House was briefly evacuated and military jets= =20 scrambled Wednesday night after a small plane flew through restricted=20 airspace near the executive mansion. The Cessna aircraft landed in=20 Richmond, Va., about 100 miles from Washington, and law enforcement=20 officials said it appeared to be simply a case of a pilot who got lost. The= =20 plane got as close as four miles from the executive mansion, said Secret=20 Service agent Brian Marr. Authorities said the plane made belated contact=20 with the tower at Reagan National Airport. President Bush had returned just= =20 20 minutes earlier from a Republican fund-raiser when some staff and=20 reporters were ordered to leave the building shortly after 8 p.m. ET. Bush= =20 remained in the executive mansion throughout the incident but was protected= =20 by unspecified security procedures, officials said. A man in a dark suit=20 hurried through the White House press area saying, "Get out, get out,=20 everybody out. Secret Service says everyone has to leave the building." Not= =20 all White House staff left. The incident occurred only hours after staff at the Federal Reserve,=20 including Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, were evacuated from the building on= =20 nearby Constitution Avenue after a suspicious package was found in a=20 garbage bin. Police cordoned off several blocks, snarling traffic during=20 the afternoon rush hour. The package turned out to be harmless. Authorities= =20 were interviewing the Cessna pilot, who had flown from a small airport in=20 Massachusetts and had not made required contact as he approached=20 Washington, officials said. The plane approached from the northeast above=20 the U.S. Capitol at 10,500 feet, well below the minimum 18,000 feet=20 required for the restricted space, federal aviation officials said. Two=20 F-16 military jets were scrambled immediately and followed the plane until= =20 it reached Richmond. The White House evacuation lasted about 15 minutes,=20 ending as soon as the plane changed direction, officials said. "The guy=20 flew out of Gardner, Mass., airspace. .... We escorted the guy to Richmond= =20 Airport where authorities apprehended him," said Petty Officer Beverly=20 Allen of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. "This just looks=20 like a pilot that had no clue he was entering restrictive airspace," said=20 Marr, the Secret Service agent. Gardner, the pilot's point of origin, is a city of about 21,000 in central= =20 Massachusetts about 50 miles west of Boston. The plane was headed for=20 Raleigh, N.C. Wednesday night's evacuation of the White House was the first= =20 since Sept. 11, when the building was thought to be a target of one of the= =20 hijacked jetliners used in the attack on New York and Washington. Four=20 commercial airliners and a medical helicopter have crossed into prohibited= =20 airspace protecting the White House since Sept. 11, Federal Aviation=20 Administration officials say. Pilots have flown through the prohibited=20 airspace protecting the White House at least 94 times over the past decade.= =20 On Sept. 12, 1994, a man flying a stolen Cessna airplane fatally crashed on= =20 the South Lawn of the White House. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (RBTT) http://www.rbtt.com/ (RBTT Financial Group) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************