Two years after a semi-organized group of yahoos broke into the Capitol and made a total mess of the seat of our democracy, they still haven’t gotten it right.
The Federal Aviation Administration kinda sorta forgot to inform the Capitol Police that Washington’s pro baseball team had planned an “Military Appreciation Night” and had asked the precision parachute jumping team, the Golden Knights, to put on a demonstration.
So when an unreported airplane appeared on the radar of the Capitol Police, no one was sure where it was headed or what its intent was. Then someone hit the panic button and sounded an alarm that scattered congressional staffers all over Capitol Hill.
How could something this stupid, this brainless happen more than two years after Jan. 6, 2020?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed the FAA in a statement Wednesday night, saying its “apparent failure to notify Capitol Police” of the pre-planned flyover for Military Appreciation Night at Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals, was “outrageous and inexcusable.”
The FAA said it “takes its role in protecting the national airspace seriously and will conduct a thorough and expeditious review of the events this evening and share updates.” The agency said it knows its actions affect others, “especially in our nation’s capital region, and we must communicate early and often with our law enforcement partners.”
Kelli LeGaspi, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, which was behind the Golden Knights’ pregame demonstration, said in a statement, “We are reviewing all aspects of the event to ensure all procedures were followed appropriately to coordinate both the flight and the parachute demonstration.”
This wasn’t a “breakdown” in communications. The military knew where the plane was and what it was for. The civilian authorities at Reagan International Airport knew of the flight and its purpose.
About the only people who remained clueless were Capitol Police.
Investigators were still working to determine why the event wasn’t properly coordinated with law enforcement officials in Washington, the law enforcement official and another U.S. official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Multiple federal agencies began scrambling officials as the plane circled overhead.
The capital region is defended by several surface-to-air missile sites, as well as military aircrews on round-the-clock alert. It did not appear that any of those systems was scrambled.
Officials believe, based on a preliminary review, the pilot may have not properly reported taking off or had appropriate clearance, the officials familiar with the matter said. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.
Perfect. When in doubt, have some anonymous schmuck blame the pilot.
Pelosi said, “Congress looks forward to reviewing the results of a thorough after-action review that determines what precisely went wrong today and who at the Federal Aviation Administration will be held accountable for this outrageous and frightening mistake.”
That’s one congressional hearing not to be missed.
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