Plane Violates Washington Air Space - AGAIN

Plane violates Washington air space
Fighter jets forced small aircraft to land in Maryland

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8449795/

Updated: 3:49 a.m. ET July 3, 2005

FREDERICK, Md. - A small plane entered restricted air space in the Washington area before two fighter jets forced it to land at an airport here, authorities said.

U.S. Secret Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry would not say what air space the small Cessna passenger plane violated on Saturday, the Frederick News-Post reported.

There is a 16-mile restricted zone in each direction from the Washington Monument and Camp David, where President Bush was spending the weekend, is also off limits.

Two F-16 fighter jets were deployed and they forced the small plane to land at Frederick Municipal Airport. Officials were questioning a man and a woman Saturday, according to the News-Post. There were no arrests.

On Wednesday, the White House briefly went to a red alert when a plane entered restricted airspace around Washington.

President Bush was hurried from his residence to a safer location and lawmakers were evacuated from the Capitol. Two fighter jets intercepted a twin-engine, propeller-driven plane eight miles northeast of the Capitol and escorted it to Winchester, Va.

The White House press office did not return calls for comment early Sunday.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.