FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — Federal authorities questioned and released a pilot Saturday night after a plane violated restricted airspace around Camp David, forcing a landing at Frederick’s airport.
The small Cessna passenger plane was intercepted by fighter jets while traveling about eight miles northwest of Frederick at about 10:45 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokeswoman Holly Baker told the Associated Press yesterday.
The pilot was forced to land and was questioned but was released late Saturday without being charged, Secret Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry said yesterday.
President Bush was spending the weekend at the presidential retreat near Thurmont, which is one of the off-limits zones in the Washington area.
The White House did not respond to questions about whether President Bush had to be evacuated from the area during the incident or was even aware of the plane.
Two F-16 jets forced the Cessna to land at the airport, the Frederick News-Post first reported. The newspaper said a man and woman were interviewed, but Mr. Cherry wouldn’t comment on the report.
No one was taken into custody, said Maryland State Police Sgt. M.W. Jones, adding that the plane may have been rented at the airport.
Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of pilots have violated Washington’s restricted airspace.
Private planes are not allowed to fly in the Air Defense Identification Zone, about 2,000 square miles radiating from the three airports around Washington, without a special transponder code and radio contact with the FAA. They are not allowed within 16 miles of the Washington Monument.
On Wednesday, the White House briefly went to red alert when a plane entered restricted airspace around Washington. Mr. Bush was hurried from his residence to a safer location and lawmakers were ordered to evacuate the U.S. Capitol.
Two fighter jets intercepted the twin-engine, propeller-driven plane eight miles northeast of the Capitol and escorted it to Winchester, Va.
On May 11, a private Cessna violated restricted airspace and sent lawmakers and other government workers scrambling from the Capitol, the White House and other federal buildings. That plane also was escorted to Frederick Municipal Airport.
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