Bad Radar Prompts White House Evacuation

Nov 20, 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) - Air Force fighter jets were scrambled and the White House was briefly evacuated on Thursday after birds or possibly disturbances in the atmosphere tripped radar that keeps watch on restricted air space around the complex.

"It's a false radar target," said William Shumann, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. "When the NORAD fighters got to the location of the alleged violation, they found nothing."

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, is the command center for the defense of U.S. and Canadian airspace.

Shumann said flocks of birds or atmospheric disturbances might have caused the false radar reading, which was initially thought to be a plane flying within five miles of restricted airspace around the White House.

"It's one of those electronic gremlins that pops up, but there was no aircraft there," he said.

The president was traveling in Britain at the time.

An evacuation begun at about 9:20 a.m. EST was called off within 20 minutes, said Secret Service spokesman John Gill. "It was deemed unnecessary when the airspace violation was determined to be a radar anomaly," he said.

On Nov. 10, Air Force fighter jets were sent to intercept a private plane that flew too close to the White House. The plane was later determined not to be a threat. The president was away then, too, on a trip to Arkansas and South Carolina.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20031120/D7UUE8HG0.html