The highest "red" level alert in Washington and the urgent evacuation were triggered by two hapless rural pilots from the farming hinterland of Pennsylvania. In the cockpit of the offending Cessna aircraft sat 69-year-old truck driver Hayden Schaefer from the Pennsylvania village of Lititz and 36-year-old vacuum cleaner salesman Troy Martin from the neighboring village of Akron. The Cessna was piloted by Martin, who had only recently obtained his pilot's license and had just 30 hours of flight time under his belt.
The Pennsylvania aviators were using an outdated map, were on the wrong radio frequency, and knew nothing at all about the restricted zone over Washington. They were so unaware of what was happening that when radio contact was finally established with them, they refused to obey the security services' command to change course and stated that they had the right to follow their own course. The pilot and his companion realized the situation was becoming threatening only after one of the two F-16 fighter jets urgently scrambled to intercept them fired four bright signal flares right in front of the Cessna's cockpit.
A Blackhawk helicopter and a US Border Service Citation jet were also urgently scrambled to participate in the interception. In order to establish radio contact with the Cessna, the Blackhawk and Citation approached the slow-moving aircraft at very close range and showed sheets of paper with the correct radio frequency written in large numbers through their windows to the Pennsylvania pilots.
As a result of the alert raised by the Cessna, 35,000 people were evacuated from the Capitol and the complex of other US Congress buildings. 200 people were urgently evacuated from the White House, including US Vice President Richard Cheney. US First Lady Laura Bush and former US President Ronald Reagan's widow Nancy, who was visiting her, were urgently taken down by security into an armored underground bunker. US President George Bush learned about what had happened only after the alert had been called off.
The American authorities detained and began interrogating the two aviation enthusiasts. The US Secret Service is conducting the interrogation and inspecting the aircraft, which is in a hangar at a small airfield in the neighboring state of Maryland. The plane was escorted there by an F-16 fighter jet and a Blackhawk combat helicopter, scrambled into the air due to the alert.
Based on materials from ITAR-TASS and RIA Novosti.