Just Plane Scared

Washington D.C. got a bit of a scare today (from Drudge):

SMALL PLANE CAUSES RAW ALARM IN WASHINGTON... WITHIN 3 MILES OF WHITE HOUSE -- THEN TURNED AWAY... F-16S FIRED 4 FLARES AT PLANE... WHITE HOUSE, CAPITOL WERE EVACUATED; VP CHENEY RACES OFF IN LIMO, STAFF RUNS FOR THEIR LIVES; Guard in West Wing of White House shouted at reporters, 'Go down into the basement'...'Leave, run' security officers shouted to staff and reporters at the Capitol Building. 'This is not a drill,' guards shouted forced people away from the building... Officers rushed through Supreme Court told staff to get into the basement...

The plane involved was a Cessna 150 (similar to the one in this photo), a 2 place training aircraft. I flew 150's for a couple of years back when I was training and after I got my license. With my 6'5" frame, I didn't really get into the airplane...I put it on. They're pretty small. With a passenger, both people on board are literally shoulder-to-shoulder and you can forget about bringing any luggage. With two adult passengers the total available luggage weight (in the small area behind the passengers) is about 50 pounds.

I'm a little surprised at the frantic nature of the evacuation, given the size of the airplane. Had that plane struck the White House, as one did during the Clinton Administration, it might have scratched the building but wouldn't have done much more. Of course, if it was carrying some type of explosive or dirty bomb, the results would be much more dramatic, but the weight carrying ability of a 150 is so small, you couldn't carry anything very large.

I expect the GOP will get a lot of heat in the next few days from the Dems who will claim this whole event was mismanaged and leadership was lacking. They'll be wrong, of course, but it won't stop the press from reporting it that way.