Airbubba
20th Jun 2002, 00:56
White House briefly evacuated
Situation declared safe after brief Secret Service response
MSNBC
WASHINGTON, June 19 — The Secret Service ordered the evacuation of the White House Wednesday night after an unidentified aircraft was spotted in the vicinity. Agents declared an all-clear moments later and allowed people back in the building.
SECRET SERVICE OFFICERS ordered everyone out of the building about 8 p.m., NBC’s David Gregory reported. The evacuation was ordered just after President Bush returned from a Republican fund-raising event at a downtown hotel.
The Secret Service let reporters return within 15 minutes, Gregory reported. No other details were immediately available, but the agency said there was no danger.
With a few limited exceptions, aircraft have long been forbidden from flying in airspace near the White House. Those restrictions were toughened further after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Only hours earlier Wednesday, the nearby Federal Reserve building was also evacuated because of suspicious packages found in an adjoining park.
The packages were found not to have explosive material. They apparently attracted the interest of bomb-sniffing security dogs because fertilizer, some forms of which can be used to make a crude bomb, had recently been spread on the ground, a D.C. police spokesman, Sgt. Joe Gentile, told NBC News.
Situation declared safe after brief Secret Service response
MSNBC
WASHINGTON, June 19 — The Secret Service ordered the evacuation of the White House Wednesday night after an unidentified aircraft was spotted in the vicinity. Agents declared an all-clear moments later and allowed people back in the building.
SECRET SERVICE OFFICERS ordered everyone out of the building about 8 p.m., NBC’s David Gregory reported. The evacuation was ordered just after President Bush returned from a Republican fund-raising event at a downtown hotel.
The Secret Service let reporters return within 15 minutes, Gregory reported. No other details were immediately available, but the agency said there was no danger.
With a few limited exceptions, aircraft have long been forbidden from flying in airspace near the White House. Those restrictions were toughened further after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Only hours earlier Wednesday, the nearby Federal Reserve building was also evacuated because of suspicious packages found in an adjoining park.
The packages were found not to have explosive material. They apparently attracted the interest of bomb-sniffing security dogs because fertilizer, some forms of which can be used to make a crude bomb, had recently been spread on the ground, a D.C. police spokesman, Sgt. Joe Gentile, told NBC News.