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Security Alert in Washington
Aired May 11, 2005 - 13:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Security alert in Washington. A man in custody after his small plane violates restricted airspace and fighter jets are scrambled.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All the latest developments live from the White House, the Pentagon and beyond in just a moment.
O'BRIEN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
The plane's on the ground, the White House, congressional and Supreme Court staffs are back at work, and the first responders who responded in such dramatic fashion at high noon D.C. time are standing down. What remains is the question, why did a pilot fly a single- engine aircraft within three miles of the White House without authorization and without responding to the fighter jets that scrambled to confront it?
We get the latest now from CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, there were some very tense moments here at the White House in the noon hour. As you can imagine, it was very frightening for a lot of people.
You had uniformed Secret Service agents. You also had members of the emergency response team who were screaming, "This is no joke," yelling for us to run, to clear the White House grounds. That is when all of us began to run.
We did clear the grounds, went over to the park across the street. We also understand that Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in the West Wing, was evacuated from the building. We saw his motorcade leave very abruptly. He later returned about 15, 20 minutes after the all-clear sign.
President Bush was never in the White House at the time. He was on a biking trip in Waldorf, Maryland. He has returned from that biking trip, we understand. The president, of course, was notified by his own Secret Service detail when he was on that outing.
Now, this was a very dramatic development here because, as you can imagine, just within minutes we are talking about alert levels that went from yellow to orange to red, jets that were scrambling. And it was just moments ago that the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan gave us a more detailed sense of the timeline and how this all unfolded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: At approximately 11:59, the threat level here at the White House was raised to yellow. There was a Cessna plane within about 15 miles of the White House. It was north of the White House. Shortly after that, around noon, fighter jets were scrambled.
At approximately 12:01, the threat level was raised to orange. The plane was within 10 miles. And an evacuation and moving of people to more secure locations began at that point.
Let me just point out that the Cessna was traveling in restricted airspace toward the White House and Capitol. The pilot was not responding to efforts to communicate with the plane.
And then at 12:03, the alert level was raised to red. And at approximately 12:11, the alert level went back down to yellow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, there are still some questions that remain. Some critical time periods here.
We're looking at the time frame, he said, between 12:03 and 12:11. That is when it went from the red alert level back down to the yellow level. We are told that the plane took a west turn away from the White House.
What happened in that eight-minute period, of course, big questions around that. Also, of course, was there ever a point when President Bush faced that critical decision whether or not the plane just got too close to the White House and whether or not he could have actually called for that plane to be shot down out of the sky.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan saying he does not believe that it got to that point. There is no indication so far. But there are still a lot of questions, Kyra, here over that eight- minute time frame.
We should also let you know those who were inside of the White House, we understand the first lady, as well as Mrs. Reagan were here inside the White House. They were taken to a secure location. As we said before, Cheney was taken off the grounds. The president was never on the grounds.
There is also some questions and some confusion as to how the White House was evacuated. As I told you before, we were told, many in the press, to leave the building, initially given a choice whether or not to stay inside or to leave the grounds.
It quickly became very apparent that you no longer had a choice. But there were some people inside the West Wing, in the press briefing area, that had no idea what was going on, never got any kind of warning system -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. And has the question been asked and has it been addressed to the fact of the individual flying this aircraft, do we know if he was a student pilot? Is the possibility out there? Has that question been asked?
MALVEAUX: It certainly hasn't come up in our briefing. Perhaps there are other people who are getting more details about the pilot himself.
What we are learning about it is that, of course -- that he is being questioned, that this is a something that has happened time and time again, but perhaps not this close to the White House. We're talking about just three miles away from the White House, which triggered that red alarm system to go off.
They are unclear even whether or not this is just the first time since 9/11 that the red alert system had gone off here at the White House. But clearly, Kyra, whoever the pilot was, whatever his background, it was significant enough to cause quite a bit of concern here this afternoon.
PHILLIPS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux live from the White House. Thank you so much -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right. Was he a bad guy or just a bad pilot, or maybe a little bit of both? Law enforcement trying to sort that out right now. A possibility, a good possibility he's going to have some explaining to do to the FAA.
The question is, what about other law enforcement agencies? CNN's Kelli Arena tracking that aspect of the story for us -- Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Miles, FBI agents, Secret Service agents, on their way, may even be there at this point to Frederick, Maryland, to interview the pilot. Suzanne had mentioned that perhaps the pilot's background may have been a cause of concern.
We have not heard that at all. What caused the concern was that this plane was in the most severely restricted airspace.
Only government aircraft, some medical evacuations and scheduled flights in and out of Reagan are allowed in that airspace. This pilot did not respond to constant communications.
Finally, it was only when the F-16 fighters sent up the flares as one of the final warning signs that the plane did head away west, started flying west away from the White House.
He is -- he is detained. He will remain detained.
We were also told, Miles, just for some clarification, we were told that there are two people on board. We have that from some officials, that there were two people on board. Other officials have only said one. We have videotape, as you say right here, of one person being led away. We're trying to sort that out at this time. But we do know that the main concern is that this individual or individuals may have had some connection to a terrorist organization, may have been possibly conducting a test run to check America's defenses. No proof at all, but these are the scenarios that FBI agents have to play out to make sure that if this was a mistake it truly was a mistake before they let this person go.
We were also able, Miles -- Miles, to check in with Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff. He was at a private event when CNN reporters asked him about his response. He said, "Look, I think Americans should be very comforted by the fact that we have procedures and people in place to deal with this."
You saw that very much in action today, at least on the air. Suzanne said there may have been some confusion on the ground. But at least in terms of dealing with this aircraft as a possible threat, all procedures he said were followed, which should be some comfort to the people watching.
O'BRIEN: Kelli, do we know anything about whether the use of the aircraft was authorized? It's licensed to a vintage aviation outfit out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Have authorities told you one way or another if they know if the pilot was authorized to use the aircraft?
ARENA: Not yet, Miles. We are -- everybody is being very tight- lipped. Of course there are some privacy concerns here.
This person may -- may never end up being charged with anything. So lots of people are very concerned about what they can and cannot say.
There were also some rumors that the plane might have been stolen. Again, just rumors at this point.
The minute I get off this set, I'm going run back, make some more phone calls and try to get some very accurate and solid information for you.
O'BRIEN: Yes. And one other thing for you, Kelli. The fact they had to actually fire the flares, that's pretty far down the checklist of -- in intercepting this. There's a series of procedures that are supposed to occur where a plane -- the intercepting aircraft comes up wing to wing with the interceptee (ph), if you will...
ARENA: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ... and there's a whole -- you're supposed to rock your wings.
ARENA: Yes.
O'BRIEN: And there's a whole series of things and a radio frequency you're supposed to tune into. Flares are pretty far down the list...
ARENA: They are.
O'BRIEN: ... which would indicate this guy was either clueless or belligerent.
ARENA: Right. That's right. Right, either, or. And we don't know.
I mean, there may have -- one agent that I spoke to suggested that he may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Nobody knows. Nobody knows exactly what the situation is, which is why federal agents will talk to him and why he is being detained.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kelli Arena. We'll let you get back to the phone. We appreciate it.
ARENA: Thanks, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thanks very much.
Well, if the pilot didn't know about the airtight restrictions surrounding D.C. airspace, he's the only one that I know of. Those F- 16s would have been a tip-off, those Black Hawk helicopters, maybe those flares across the nose.
We've got more on the whole array of post-9/11 defenses and how they were deployed by CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre.
They tell me, Jamie, that the system worked here. Is that what you're hearing?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it appears so. Although, I have to say, it was a dramatic contrast here at the Pentagon to the scene that we saw on Capitol Hill and at the White House, where people were being urgently evacuated.
There was no such evacuation at the Pentagon, which, you know, obviously was a target on September 11th of 2001. There was no announcement made here.
People began to become aware of what was going on simply by watching the in-house cable system and seeing the various news channels reporting what was going on, on Capitol Hill. But there were no -- no official internal notification here, no decision to evacuate the Pentagon. And people who came in the building right at that noon hour reported that it just looked like business as usual.
We're also told that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Myers were both in meetings at the time and continued in those meetings. We don't know exactly when Rumsfeld was notified. We do know that the Pentagon has now a new position, an assistant secretary of defense for homeland -- homeland defense, and he was on an open call the entire time the situation was going on, what they call a Noble Eagle call. Operation Noble Eagle is the name of the operation in which jets like those F-16s stand by to scramble in a situation like this. So there's what they call a Noble Eagle call. That means there's an incident.
There was a senior Pentagon official on that call at all times in case a decision had to be made, for instance, about possibly shooting down an aircraft or something like that. His -- he also notified top Pentagon people at the time. But again, the decision at the Pentagon, for whatever reason, either because the plane was not -- seemed to be heading in this direction, or because the situation was -- seemed to be under control.
But there was no decision to evacuate the Pentagon, no whisking away of any top officials. Nobody moving to a secure location in the building.
So, to get back to the beginning of your question, did the system work, well, it appears that it worked. But they might want to go back and review and decide -- it will be interesting to hear, for instance, the rationale for why the White House, Capitol Hill were evacuated, but not the Pentagon.
They may have had good reasons for that. It might have been smart people making informed decisions. But right now we don't actually know what that rationale was.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, I guess we've heard -- hopefully this is accurate -- within three miles of the White House, Jamie. And on the -- the northern side of the Potomac. So that would put it a minute and a half or so away from the White House, but you still have to go that much further to get across the river and down to the Pentagon. As a matter of fact, down where that banner is and a little bit further down...
MCINTYRE: Right, well...
O'BRIEN: ... would be the Pentagon. So maybe it was that. I don't know.
MCINTYRE: Yes, it's not -- it's not very far, but, again, we don't know the exact -- the precise location at the point when they might have wanted to make a decision. They might have already decided that the F-16s had the situation in hand, that there wasn't a threat to the Pentagon.
Obviously, 24,000 people or so work at the Pentagon, and evacuating the Pentagon or moving people to a secure location, you know, would be a major disruption. But certainly no less of a disruption than we saw on Capitol Hill and at the White House.
So it will be interesting to hear what the rationale was for that. We've asked Pentagon officials to provide us with an explanation, and we hope to get one by the end of the day.
O'BRIEN: All right. We're counting on you. Jamie McIntyre, at the Pentagon. Thank you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, we have been mentioning the number of buildings besides the U.S. Capitol and the White House that were evacuated once this tiny plane did enter restricted airspace. Also, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Treasury Department ordered people to safer locations.
The chief of the Capitol Police, Terrence Gainer, held a news conference not too long ago. This is what he had to say to reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TERRY GAINER, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: We finally went to our highest air con threat level when it was four miles out from the Capitol. We immediately -- we have some procedures that go into place before that.
We had already begun moving the leadership from the Capitol and from the sites they were at. And then we had enough time at that four-and-a-half milish (ph) to begin emptying the buildings. We began the evacuation of the Capitol at about four minutes after 12:00. It took us about five or six minutes to entirely empty the Capitol.
We're happy to report that there were no serious injuries from that evacuation. The pilot did not maintain or make communication with anyone during that time, and others will explain what the military and the Border Patrol folks did. But the plane was under observation, but it wasn't responding to the helicopters or the military planes that were in the area.
It was finally forced down in Frederick, Maryland, and two people have been taken into custody. I don't know much about them. The plane was taken from an airport in Smoketown, Pennsylvania. The preliminary information we have -- and it's all very preliminary -- is that they were not authorized to take the plane from the airport but in fact did. And the Secret Service and the FBI and the transportation officials will be...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. He absolutely made a key point there. It's a question we have been asking.
The chief of Capitol Police, Terrence Gainer, there making the point that this aircraft was not authorized by these individuals to fly -- or these individuals were not authorized to fly this tiny plane that prompted the red alert. The red alert, of course, being those powerful signal of how to stop these type of scenarios in action.
Richard Falkenrath, our intelligence analyst, joining us now on more about this threat and the response from Homeland Security.
I guess, Richard, first of all, responding to the Capitol Police chief saying that these individuals were not authorized to take this aircraft, I mean, that right there is a pretty powerful statement.
RICHARD FALKENRATH, FMR. WHITE HOUSE AIDE: Yes, that's right. If that turns out to be true, they clearly committed a crime, and it's the sort of thing that will -- will get them in a lot of trouble. But I think we should probably wait until that investigation runs its course. We'll find out very quickly if that was the case.
PHILLIPS: Now, let's -- let's take it back from the very beginning. Two questions.
First of all, since 9/11, there has been so much scrutiny within -- especially within small aircraft training. A number of stories have broken recently about these small flight schools and these small aircraft and individuals being -- not being certified, and being able to get behind -- you know, get in the cockpit of these aircraft.
If, indeed, this is the truth, that in Smoketown, Pennsylvania, these individuals were able to get in this aircraft and take off and get as far as they did, even entering restricted airspace, what does that say once again about homeland security when it comes to small, medium, large airport scenarios?
FALKENRATH: Well, Kyra, you're right. The on-the-ground protection for aircraft, particularly at small airports, leaves a lot to be desired. There is no access control at most of these airports.
I understand that this airport was a very small rural airport. And in places like that, if you ever visited them, there's really not a lot there.
There might be one guy with a radio and a gate. But, you know, a lot of people hang out at these airports, and it's not that hard to get in a plane and take it off if you know how to fly it.
So we have not deployed any kind of major law enforcement presence at all at these thousands of airports across the country. The cost of doing that would be very high.
PHILLIPS: Well, Richard, let's look at Moussaoui, prime example. It was Egan, Minnesota, this very small airport and training facility, where he learned how to fly and was able to take off at any time with his trainers.
FALKENRATH: Well, that's correct. The flight schools are another problem. And we actually have done quite a bit more at flight schools.
We've reached out to every flight school in the country and tried to raise the awareness of the administrators and the teachers at the flight school. We've also scrutinized the visas for all foreign students applying for training at U.S. flight schools. So more has been done at flight schools. But airports, there are so many private general aviation airports in this country, we really haven't as a country decided that we want to put a tight security perimeter around all of them.
PHILLIPS: So I guess that's sort of the bad news in this scenario, but let's point out the good news. And that is, it seems at this point that the training paid off in this case. We remember before 9/11, even after 9/11, when jets were scrambled, there was so much scrutiny about did they get up in the air quick enough, did they know what to do, should they have shot down the aircraft being flown by terrorists. And so all of a sudden, you saw more cat (ph) missions and you saw an increase in the budget that this training could go forward for shoot-down scenarios, if indeed it had to reach that point.
It looks like from what we know so far that even though this aircraft entered restricted airspace, training paid off.
FALKENRATH: I think that's right. We have focused on that mission a great deal since 9/11. The Department of Defense takes it very seriously, tests the procedures with great regular later.
The airspace around Washington is the -- probably tightest airspace in America. It's subject to multiple different layers of security, several different radar systems are deployed there. There are several different defensive systems that have been deployed there, and that part of the system seems to have worked pretty well in this case.
We're going to learn more in the next couple hours about exactly what happened. So maybe an error will be revealed. But in terms of the air defense response, as far as I can see, it was handled about right.
PHILLIPS: Richard Falkenrath, we're going to ask you to stand by if you don't mind, because, you're right, we're learning more by the minute. Thanks so much for your time.
FALKENRATH: Thanks, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. More on this developing story and more LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: All right, live, these are pictures -- not live pictures, but recent pictures. Frederick, Maryland, the location. This is the Cessna 152 that caused quite a stir in Washington, D.C. over the past few hours.
This Cessna 150 began out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. And for reasons unknown to us at this point, made its way toward Washington, D.C. and the ADIZ, as they call it. That's the Air Defense Identification Zone.
That's like a wall in the air. And any aircraft that chooses to penetrate it has to do a whole series of things properly, or what happened this afternoon happens, which is Black Hawk helicopters, F- 16s intercepted this slow-moving light aircraft -- it weighs no more than 1,600 pounds, brimming with fuel -- and escorted it down to Frederick, Maryland.
It came within three miles or about a minute and a half from the White House at one point. So as we are being told right now, according to CNN's Kelli Arena, who is working the phones pretty hard and covers the Justice Department for us, there were two aboard, a certified flight instructor and a student.
And that answers a few questions for us about what might have gone on here. There was the possibility this could have been some kind of strange joyride involving one individual. But the fact that this might have been some sort of training mission raises a whole other host of questions in our mind as to how this plane could have gone so horribly astray into the most protected airspace in the United States -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, as you heard with regard to the response to the scenario of this Cessna 150 entering restricted airspace, security analyst Richard Falkenrath said, from what he observed, that the air defense response was indeed solid.
And last year, I got an inside look at the heart and mind of the homeland air defense system. And what I saw is something you'll see only on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aircraft diverted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secret Service has been informed.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): They call it the air war against terrorists, and this is the battlefield. The potential enemy? A civilian aircraft under terrorist control.
The strategy? To end every incident without firing a shot.
But 9/11 spawned a new kind of war with chilling new rules of engagement. In this war, the military is forced to think the unthinkable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think the public would have stood for anything -- us firing on commercial airliners in the past. But it's been proven that, yes, something worse might happen -- might happen. So we're just kind of an extension of the public will.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant Colonel T.G. Carazas (ph) and Major John Black (ph) of the 125th Fighter Wing are getting ready for a routine patrol in southeast U.S. airspace. These Florida Air National Guard F-15 fighter pilots are battle-ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check the back end of the gun. Make sure it's all hot and the bullets are loaded in the chambers. Make our heat seeker -- make sure that all looks good.
PHILLIPS: We're going along on a mission that shows what might happen if a commercial airliner is hijacked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traveler one copies (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: It doesn't take long before this mission is diverted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Contact with this aircraft has failed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FA (ph), can you give me a mode three on that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 5012, Jamie (ph).
PHILLIPS: Something is not right with a passenger plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the sonar battle commander. We have a NORDO airliner.
PHILLIPS: NORDO, no radio contact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your NORDO aircraft is talking to airlines 401, Miami to Wilmington, the metro liner.
PHILLIPS: Military intelligence and the FAA want to know everything about this airliner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get the range, how far that they can fly on 3,400 pounds of gas.
PHILLIPS: Could this aircraft reach critical infrastructure? These commanders take no chances.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have committed (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your mission, intercept shadow (ph). Commit bulls-eye 100, 158, 21,500 track west.
PHILLIPS: Fighters now monitor Falcon Flight 401's every move. Then...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The aircraft is now squawking at 7500 squawk.
PHILLIPS: 7500 is the code for hijack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See if they can give us any indication of who is in control of the aircraft.
PHILLIPS: Pilots attempt hand signals. No response. Pilots rock their wings. Still, no response.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He should acknowledge with a wing rock, which he's not doing.
PHILLIPS: Two generals are brought in and briefed. One from the Canadian air force, one from the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So who is on board?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fourteen passengers, two crew, one Pakistani, one Saudi, one French. The others are presumed to be of United States descent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fighters are on it now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My concern is we could have something else in this country. So we're going to keep our focus on this thing, but we're also going to keep focus on the rest of the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The JPAC (ph) has authorized the use of flares to get the pilot's attention.
PHILLIPS: Now is the final attempt to get this pilot to respond. If he doesn't, the order could come to shoot this aircraft down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we have engagement authority?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. We have engagement authority on line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) these flares are authorized.
PHILLIPS: Flares are released.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now the guy realizes he's serious. Now he's (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: The pilot finally responds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we should ever relax. And we're going to have to continue to prosecute this enemy until they no longer present a threat.
PHILLIPS: A new kind of war. A new way of fighting. A battle in which a commander's best choice may be the lesser of two evils. And the battle cry is... never again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And obviously today, after the story that we've been following about that aircraft going into restricted airspace, you have seen that training in action and how it actually plays out in a real- life scenario.
We're LIVE FROM right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired May 11, 2005 - 13:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Security alert in Washington. A man in custody after his small plane violates restricted airspace and fighter jets are scrambled.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All the latest developments live from the White House, the Pentagon and beyond in just a moment.
O'BRIEN: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Miles O'Brien.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
The plane's on the ground, the White House, congressional and Supreme Court staffs are back at work, and the first responders who responded in such dramatic fashion at high noon D.C. time are standing down. What remains is the question, why did a pilot fly a single- engine aircraft within three miles of the White House without authorization and without responding to the fighter jets that scrambled to confront it?
We get the latest now from CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, there were some very tense moments here at the White House in the noon hour. As you can imagine, it was very frightening for a lot of people.
You had uniformed Secret Service agents. You also had members of the emergency response team who were screaming, "This is no joke," yelling for us to run, to clear the White House grounds. That is when all of us began to run.
We did clear the grounds, went over to the park across the street. We also understand that Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in the West Wing, was evacuated from the building. We saw his motorcade leave very abruptly. He later returned about 15, 20 minutes after the all-clear sign.
President Bush was never in the White House at the time. He was on a biking trip in Waldorf, Maryland. He has returned from that biking trip, we understand. The president, of course, was notified by his own Secret Service detail when he was on that outing.
Now, this was a very dramatic development here because, as you can imagine, just within minutes we are talking about alert levels that went from yellow to orange to red, jets that were scrambling. And it was just moments ago that the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan gave us a more detailed sense of the timeline and how this all unfolded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: At approximately 11:59, the threat level here at the White House was raised to yellow. There was a Cessna plane within about 15 miles of the White House. It was north of the White House. Shortly after that, around noon, fighter jets were scrambled.
At approximately 12:01, the threat level was raised to orange. The plane was within 10 miles. And an evacuation and moving of people to more secure locations began at that point.
Let me just point out that the Cessna was traveling in restricted airspace toward the White House and Capitol. The pilot was not responding to efforts to communicate with the plane.
And then at 12:03, the alert level was raised to red. And at approximately 12:11, the alert level went back down to yellow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, there are still some questions that remain. Some critical time periods here.
We're looking at the time frame, he said, between 12:03 and 12:11. That is when it went from the red alert level back down to the yellow level. We are told that the plane took a west turn away from the White House.
What happened in that eight-minute period, of course, big questions around that. Also, of course, was there ever a point when President Bush faced that critical decision whether or not the plane just got too close to the White House and whether or not he could have actually called for that plane to be shot down out of the sky.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan saying he does not believe that it got to that point. There is no indication so far. But there are still a lot of questions, Kyra, here over that eight- minute time frame.
We should also let you know those who were inside of the White House, we understand the first lady, as well as Mrs. Reagan were here inside the White House. They were taken to a secure location. As we said before, Cheney was taken off the grounds. The president was never on the grounds.
There is also some questions and some confusion as to how the White House was evacuated. As I told you before, we were told, many in the press, to leave the building, initially given a choice whether or not to stay inside or to leave the grounds.
It quickly became very apparent that you no longer had a choice. But there were some people inside the West Wing, in the press briefing area, that had no idea what was going on, never got any kind of warning system -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. And has the question been asked and has it been addressed to the fact of the individual flying this aircraft, do we know if he was a student pilot? Is the possibility out there? Has that question been asked?
MALVEAUX: It certainly hasn't come up in our briefing. Perhaps there are other people who are getting more details about the pilot himself.
What we are learning about it is that, of course -- that he is being questioned, that this is a something that has happened time and time again, but perhaps not this close to the White House. We're talking about just three miles away from the White House, which triggered that red alarm system to go off.
They are unclear even whether or not this is just the first time since 9/11 that the red alert system had gone off here at the White House. But clearly, Kyra, whoever the pilot was, whatever his background, it was significant enough to cause quite a bit of concern here this afternoon.
PHILLIPS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux live from the White House. Thank you so much -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right. Was he a bad guy or just a bad pilot, or maybe a little bit of both? Law enforcement trying to sort that out right now. A possibility, a good possibility he's going to have some explaining to do to the FAA.
The question is, what about other law enforcement agencies? CNN's Kelli Arena tracking that aspect of the story for us -- Kelli.
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Miles, FBI agents, Secret Service agents, on their way, may even be there at this point to Frederick, Maryland, to interview the pilot. Suzanne had mentioned that perhaps the pilot's background may have been a cause of concern.
We have not heard that at all. What caused the concern was that this plane was in the most severely restricted airspace.
Only government aircraft, some medical evacuations and scheduled flights in and out of Reagan are allowed in that airspace. This pilot did not respond to constant communications.
Finally, it was only when the F-16 fighters sent up the flares as one of the final warning signs that the plane did head away west, started flying west away from the White House.
He is -- he is detained. He will remain detained.
We were also told, Miles, just for some clarification, we were told that there are two people on board. We have that from some officials, that there were two people on board. Other officials have only said one. We have videotape, as you say right here, of one person being led away. We're trying to sort that out at this time. But we do know that the main concern is that this individual or individuals may have had some connection to a terrorist organization, may have been possibly conducting a test run to check America's defenses. No proof at all, but these are the scenarios that FBI agents have to play out to make sure that if this was a mistake it truly was a mistake before they let this person go.
We were also able, Miles -- Miles, to check in with Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff. He was at a private event when CNN reporters asked him about his response. He said, "Look, I think Americans should be very comforted by the fact that we have procedures and people in place to deal with this."
You saw that very much in action today, at least on the air. Suzanne said there may have been some confusion on the ground. But at least in terms of dealing with this aircraft as a possible threat, all procedures he said were followed, which should be some comfort to the people watching.
O'BRIEN: Kelli, do we know anything about whether the use of the aircraft was authorized? It's licensed to a vintage aviation outfit out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Have authorities told you one way or another if they know if the pilot was authorized to use the aircraft?
ARENA: Not yet, Miles. We are -- everybody is being very tight- lipped. Of course there are some privacy concerns here.
This person may -- may never end up being charged with anything. So lots of people are very concerned about what they can and cannot say.
There were also some rumors that the plane might have been stolen. Again, just rumors at this point.
The minute I get off this set, I'm going run back, make some more phone calls and try to get some very accurate and solid information for you.
O'BRIEN: Yes. And one other thing for you, Kelli. The fact they had to actually fire the flares, that's pretty far down the checklist of -- in intercepting this. There's a series of procedures that are supposed to occur where a plane -- the intercepting aircraft comes up wing to wing with the interceptee (ph), if you will...
ARENA: That's right.
O'BRIEN: ... and there's a whole -- you're supposed to rock your wings.
ARENA: Yes.
O'BRIEN: And there's a whole series of things and a radio frequency you're supposed to tune into. Flares are pretty far down the list...
ARENA: They are.
O'BRIEN: ... which would indicate this guy was either clueless or belligerent.
ARENA: Right. That's right. Right, either, or. And we don't know.
I mean, there may have -- one agent that I spoke to suggested that he may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Nobody knows. Nobody knows exactly what the situation is, which is why federal agents will talk to him and why he is being detained.
O'BRIEN: All right, Kelli Arena. We'll let you get back to the phone. We appreciate it.
ARENA: Thanks, Miles.
O'BRIEN: Thanks very much.
Well, if the pilot didn't know about the airtight restrictions surrounding D.C. airspace, he's the only one that I know of. Those F- 16s would have been a tip-off, those Black Hawk helicopters, maybe those flares across the nose.
We've got more on the whole array of post-9/11 defenses and how they were deployed by CNN's senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre.
They tell me, Jamie, that the system worked here. Is that what you're hearing?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it appears so. Although, I have to say, it was a dramatic contrast here at the Pentagon to the scene that we saw on Capitol Hill and at the White House, where people were being urgently evacuated.
There was no such evacuation at the Pentagon, which, you know, obviously was a target on September 11th of 2001. There was no announcement made here.
People began to become aware of what was going on simply by watching the in-house cable system and seeing the various news channels reporting what was going on, on Capitol Hill. But there were no -- no official internal notification here, no decision to evacuate the Pentagon. And people who came in the building right at that noon hour reported that it just looked like business as usual.
We're also told that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Myers were both in meetings at the time and continued in those meetings. We don't know exactly when Rumsfeld was notified. We do know that the Pentagon has now a new position, an assistant secretary of defense for homeland -- homeland defense, and he was on an open call the entire time the situation was going on, what they call a Noble Eagle call. Operation Noble Eagle is the name of the operation in which jets like those F-16s stand by to scramble in a situation like this. So there's what they call a Noble Eagle call. That means there's an incident.
There was a senior Pentagon official on that call at all times in case a decision had to be made, for instance, about possibly shooting down an aircraft or something like that. His -- he also notified top Pentagon people at the time. But again, the decision at the Pentagon, for whatever reason, either because the plane was not -- seemed to be heading in this direction, or because the situation was -- seemed to be under control.
But there was no decision to evacuate the Pentagon, no whisking away of any top officials. Nobody moving to a secure location in the building.
So, to get back to the beginning of your question, did the system work, well, it appears that it worked. But they might want to go back and review and decide -- it will be interesting to hear, for instance, the rationale for why the White House, Capitol Hill were evacuated, but not the Pentagon.
They may have had good reasons for that. It might have been smart people making informed decisions. But right now we don't actually know what that rationale was.
O'BRIEN: All right. Well, I guess we've heard -- hopefully this is accurate -- within three miles of the White House, Jamie. And on the -- the northern side of the Potomac. So that would put it a minute and a half or so away from the White House, but you still have to go that much further to get across the river and down to the Pentagon. As a matter of fact, down where that banner is and a little bit further down...
MCINTYRE: Right, well...
O'BRIEN: ... would be the Pentagon. So maybe it was that. I don't know.
MCINTYRE: Yes, it's not -- it's not very far, but, again, we don't know the exact -- the precise location at the point when they might have wanted to make a decision. They might have already decided that the F-16s had the situation in hand, that there wasn't a threat to the Pentagon.
Obviously, 24,000 people or so work at the Pentagon, and evacuating the Pentagon or moving people to a secure location, you know, would be a major disruption. But certainly no less of a disruption than we saw on Capitol Hill and at the White House.
So it will be interesting to hear what the rationale was for that. We've asked Pentagon officials to provide us with an explanation, and we hope to get one by the end of the day.
O'BRIEN: All right. We're counting on you. Jamie McIntyre, at the Pentagon. Thank you -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, we have been mentioning the number of buildings besides the U.S. Capitol and the White House that were evacuated once this tiny plane did enter restricted airspace. Also, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Treasury Department ordered people to safer locations.
The chief of the Capitol Police, Terrence Gainer, held a news conference not too long ago. This is what he had to say to reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TERRY GAINER, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: We finally went to our highest air con threat level when it was four miles out from the Capitol. We immediately -- we have some procedures that go into place before that.
We had already begun moving the leadership from the Capitol and from the sites they were at. And then we had enough time at that four-and-a-half milish (ph) to begin emptying the buildings. We began the evacuation of the Capitol at about four minutes after 12:00. It took us about five or six minutes to entirely empty the Capitol.
We're happy to report that there were no serious injuries from that evacuation. The pilot did not maintain or make communication with anyone during that time, and others will explain what the military and the Border Patrol folks did. But the plane was under observation, but it wasn't responding to the helicopters or the military planes that were in the area.
It was finally forced down in Frederick, Maryland, and two people have been taken into custody. I don't know much about them. The plane was taken from an airport in Smoketown, Pennsylvania. The preliminary information we have -- and it's all very preliminary -- is that they were not authorized to take the plane from the airport but in fact did. And the Secret Service and the FBI and the transportation officials will be...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: OK. He absolutely made a key point there. It's a question we have been asking.
The chief of Capitol Police, Terrence Gainer, there making the point that this aircraft was not authorized by these individuals to fly -- or these individuals were not authorized to fly this tiny plane that prompted the red alert. The red alert, of course, being those powerful signal of how to stop these type of scenarios in action.
Richard Falkenrath, our intelligence analyst, joining us now on more about this threat and the response from Homeland Security.
I guess, Richard, first of all, responding to the Capitol Police chief saying that these individuals were not authorized to take this aircraft, I mean, that right there is a pretty powerful statement.
RICHARD FALKENRATH, FMR. WHITE HOUSE AIDE: Yes, that's right. If that turns out to be true, they clearly committed a crime, and it's the sort of thing that will -- will get them in a lot of trouble. But I think we should probably wait until that investigation runs its course. We'll find out very quickly if that was the case.
PHILLIPS: Now, let's -- let's take it back from the very beginning. Two questions.
First of all, since 9/11, there has been so much scrutiny within -- especially within small aircraft training. A number of stories have broken recently about these small flight schools and these small aircraft and individuals being -- not being certified, and being able to get behind -- you know, get in the cockpit of these aircraft.
If, indeed, this is the truth, that in Smoketown, Pennsylvania, these individuals were able to get in this aircraft and take off and get as far as they did, even entering restricted airspace, what does that say once again about homeland security when it comes to small, medium, large airport scenarios?
FALKENRATH: Well, Kyra, you're right. The on-the-ground protection for aircraft, particularly at small airports, leaves a lot to be desired. There is no access control at most of these airports.
I understand that this airport was a very small rural airport. And in places like that, if you ever visited them, there's really not a lot there.
There might be one guy with a radio and a gate. But, you know, a lot of people hang out at these airports, and it's not that hard to get in a plane and take it off if you know how to fly it.
So we have not deployed any kind of major law enforcement presence at all at these thousands of airports across the country. The cost of doing that would be very high.
PHILLIPS: Well, Richard, let's look at Moussaoui, prime example. It was Egan, Minnesota, this very small airport and training facility, where he learned how to fly and was able to take off at any time with his trainers.
FALKENRATH: Well, that's correct. The flight schools are another problem. And we actually have done quite a bit more at flight schools.
We've reached out to every flight school in the country and tried to raise the awareness of the administrators and the teachers at the flight school. We've also scrutinized the visas for all foreign students applying for training at U.S. flight schools. So more has been done at flight schools. But airports, there are so many private general aviation airports in this country, we really haven't as a country decided that we want to put a tight security perimeter around all of them.
PHILLIPS: So I guess that's sort of the bad news in this scenario, but let's point out the good news. And that is, it seems at this point that the training paid off in this case. We remember before 9/11, even after 9/11, when jets were scrambled, there was so much scrutiny about did they get up in the air quick enough, did they know what to do, should they have shot down the aircraft being flown by terrorists. And so all of a sudden, you saw more cat (ph) missions and you saw an increase in the budget that this training could go forward for shoot-down scenarios, if indeed it had to reach that point.
It looks like from what we know so far that even though this aircraft entered restricted airspace, training paid off.
FALKENRATH: I think that's right. We have focused on that mission a great deal since 9/11. The Department of Defense takes it very seriously, tests the procedures with great regular later.
The airspace around Washington is the -- probably tightest airspace in America. It's subject to multiple different layers of security, several different radar systems are deployed there. There are several different defensive systems that have been deployed there, and that part of the system seems to have worked pretty well in this case.
We're going to learn more in the next couple hours about exactly what happened. So maybe an error will be revealed. But in terms of the air defense response, as far as I can see, it was handled about right.
PHILLIPS: Richard Falkenrath, we're going to ask you to stand by if you don't mind, because, you're right, we're learning more by the minute. Thanks so much for your time.
FALKENRATH: Thanks, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. More on this developing story and more LIVE FROM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: All right, live, these are pictures -- not live pictures, but recent pictures. Frederick, Maryland, the location. This is the Cessna 152 that caused quite a stir in Washington, D.C. over the past few hours.
This Cessna 150 began out of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. And for reasons unknown to us at this point, made its way toward Washington, D.C. and the ADIZ, as they call it. That's the Air Defense Identification Zone.
That's like a wall in the air. And any aircraft that chooses to penetrate it has to do a whole series of things properly, or what happened this afternoon happens, which is Black Hawk helicopters, F- 16s intercepted this slow-moving light aircraft -- it weighs no more than 1,600 pounds, brimming with fuel -- and escorted it down to Frederick, Maryland.
It came within three miles or about a minute and a half from the White House at one point. So as we are being told right now, according to CNN's Kelli Arena, who is working the phones pretty hard and covers the Justice Department for us, there were two aboard, a certified flight instructor and a student.
And that answers a few questions for us about what might have gone on here. There was the possibility this could have been some kind of strange joyride involving one individual. But the fact that this might have been some sort of training mission raises a whole other host of questions in our mind as to how this plane could have gone so horribly astray into the most protected airspace in the United States -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, as you heard with regard to the response to the scenario of this Cessna 150 entering restricted airspace, security analyst Richard Falkenrath said, from what he observed, that the air defense response was indeed solid.
And last year, I got an inside look at the heart and mind of the homeland air defense system. And what I saw is something you'll see only on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aircraft diverted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secret Service has been informed.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): They call it the air war against terrorists, and this is the battlefield. The potential enemy? A civilian aircraft under terrorist control.
The strategy? To end every incident without firing a shot.
But 9/11 spawned a new kind of war with chilling new rules of engagement. In this war, the military is forced to think the unthinkable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think the public would have stood for anything -- us firing on commercial airliners in the past. But it's been proven that, yes, something worse might happen -- might happen. So we're just kind of an extension of the public will.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant Colonel T.G. Carazas (ph) and Major John Black (ph) of the 125th Fighter Wing are getting ready for a routine patrol in southeast U.S. airspace. These Florida Air National Guard F-15 fighter pilots are battle-ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check the back end of the gun. Make sure it's all hot and the bullets are loaded in the chambers. Make our heat seeker -- make sure that all looks good.
PHILLIPS: We're going along on a mission that shows what might happen if a commercial airliner is hijacked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traveler one copies (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: It doesn't take long before this mission is diverted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Contact with this aircraft has failed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FA (ph), can you give me a mode three on that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 5012, Jamie (ph).
PHILLIPS: Something is not right with a passenger plane over the Atlantic Ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the sonar battle commander. We have a NORDO airliner.
PHILLIPS: NORDO, no radio contact.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your NORDO aircraft is talking to airlines 401, Miami to Wilmington, the metro liner.
PHILLIPS: Military intelligence and the FAA want to know everything about this airliner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get the range, how far that they can fly on 3,400 pounds of gas.
PHILLIPS: Could this aircraft reach critical infrastructure? These commanders take no chances.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have committed (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your mission, intercept shadow (ph). Commit bulls-eye 100, 158, 21,500 track west.
PHILLIPS: Fighters now monitor Falcon Flight 401's every move. Then...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The aircraft is now squawking at 7500 squawk.
PHILLIPS: 7500 is the code for hijack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See if they can give us any indication of who is in control of the aircraft.
PHILLIPS: Pilots attempt hand signals. No response. Pilots rock their wings. Still, no response.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He should acknowledge with a wing rock, which he's not doing.
PHILLIPS: Two generals are brought in and briefed. One from the Canadian air force, one from the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So who is on board?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sixteen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fourteen passengers, two crew, one Pakistani, one Saudi, one French. The others are presumed to be of United States descent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fighters are on it now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My concern is we could have something else in this country. So we're going to keep our focus on this thing, but we're also going to keep focus on the rest of the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The JPAC (ph) has authorized the use of flares to get the pilot's attention.
PHILLIPS: Now is the final attempt to get this pilot to respond. If he doesn't, the order could come to shoot this aircraft down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we have engagement authority?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. We have engagement authority on line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) these flares are authorized.
PHILLIPS: Flares are released.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now the guy realizes he's serious. Now he's (INAUDIBLE).
PHILLIPS: The pilot finally responds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we should ever relax. And we're going to have to continue to prosecute this enemy until they no longer present a threat.
PHILLIPS: A new kind of war. A new way of fighting. A battle in which a commander's best choice may be the lesser of two evils. And the battle cry is... never again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And obviously today, after the story that we've been following about that aircraft going into restricted airspace, you have seen that training in action and how it actually plays out in a real- life scenario.
We're LIVE FROM right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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