Capitol Evacuated: Another Day, Another Airspace Violation

The U.S. Capitol was briefly evacuated Saturday afternoon after a pilot flew into restricted airspace but the drama was over almost as quickly as it began. The Washington Post breaking news blog reported that the pilot was landing the plane safely at 2:05 pm and Capitol police were given the "all-clear."

While the evacuation of the Capitol gets major media attention, inadvertent incursions into the nation's restricted airspace aren't all that uncommon. A 2005 Government Accountability Office report documented 3,400 violations, about 3 per day, in the 39 months after 9/11, 43 percent involving Washington, D.C. Like backpacks left behind on benches and briefcases forgotten on buses, the flights into restricted airspace typically don't involve any kind of threat. Most are founded in bad weather avoidance or ignorance of the restricted zone boundaries.

The effects of restricted airspace violations was a topic of discussion on a pilotsofamerica forum in April 2009 when the Senate and White House were evacuated. One pilot mentioned observing the evacuation of the Dirksen Senate office building three times in three months when he worked in the neighborhood. The pilots' discussion noted the distinction between the flight restricted zone (FRZ) and the special flight restriction area (SFRA), with the former being violated daily, the latter less frequently. One pilot joked that the purpose of the SFRA was to keep planes from being shot down over the FRZ.

On a DC pilots' message board, a discussion in March noted that recent changes had reduced daily SFRA incursions from three to one.

The SFRA is not a stationary line but an ever changing one. The restrictions changed most recently Dec. 1 for "special security reasons," with the new requirements in place until further notice. Pilots who fly into restricted airspace may face civil fines, license suspensions or criminal penalties.

The Ellipse was evacuated after a restricted airspace incursion November 22. F-16s escorted the Cessna 182 out of the nation's capital during that incident, which involved an evacuation extending from the White House south lawn to the Washington Monument.

A more unusual incursion occurred in Aug. when an unmanned Navy drone violated airspace restrictions. The operators who lost control of the drone were able to reestablish control over the drone and fly it out of restricted airspace without incident. The U.S. Navy's Fire Scout drones are designed to conduct surveillance used on Navy warships. Whenever contact between drones and operators is broken, the drones are supposed to automatically return to base. A software glitch was the apparent culprit in the DC airspace incursion incident.