In a highly unusual maneuver, President Obama’s 30 minute flight to the Presidential mountain retreat at Camp David this afternoon was diverted to an undisclosed landing near Frederick, Maryland and a motorcade assembled to drive him to the nearby site. White House press secretary Jay Carney tells ABC News a “bad weather call” was made before the President and his younger daughter Sasha even boarded the aircraft.I read a Twitter report from someone who lives in that area and said there was military aircraft activity for 20 minutes around the area. A small plane was also chased away from the Camp David area when it wandered into the security zone. I'm wondering if this precautionary landing was due more to an airborne security threat than a weather problem, especially since the weather in the area did not seem to be a problem for Marine One.
Carney says they have now arrived safely at Camp David. It remains unexplained why the President would be allowed to board Marine One knowing that the landing site on the mountain was experiencing weather making a landing difficult.
The press first learned of the diversion when wire agency still photographers, who traditionally stand by at Camp David for news coverage in case of an emergency, were told by the military at the mountain top Marine base that the President would be motorcading.
The White House press office did not inform the daily travel pool which remains at the White House and does not make the helicopter trip to Camp David. The pool would normally accompany any bad weather motorcade to the retreat.
In Washington at the time Marine One took off, according to Accuweather.com, there was no precipitation across the entire region, including Camp David.
Light winds blew from the southeast at 10mph with mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the middle 70′s.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Mr. Obama's Weird Ride
This seems rather odd:
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