Congressional staffers were asked to leave the Capitol building Wednesday after police announced spotting “an aircraft that poses a probable threat to the Capitol Complex” that later turned out to be carrying US Army members.
The twin-engine aircraft took off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and flew over the restricted airspace of the Capitol grounds to finally reach Nationals Park, nearly one mile away, where members of the US Army’s Golden Knights parachuted for a pregame demonstration.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the incident “outrageous and inexcusable”.
“The unnecessary panic caused by this apparent negligence was particularly harmful to Members, staff, and institutional workers still grappling with the trauma of the attack on their workplace on Jan. 6,” she said in a statement.
“Congress looks forward to reviewing the result 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.”
