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billege · 06-10-2004, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Fletcher's plane stirs a panic; Capitol, high court evacuated
LOSS OF ELECTRONIC SIGNAL RAISES ALARM
By Ryan Alessi
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

The airplane carrying Gov. Ernie Fletcher to Washington yesterday for former President Ronald Reagan's funeral caused a brief but panicky evacuation of the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court and received a swift greeting from fighter jets.

The Kentucky State Police plane, a 33-year-old turbo-prop, had just taken off from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Erlanger when its transponder, which emits an electronic identification signal, began to malfunction, said Daniel Groves, Fletcher's chief of staff. Radio contact was never lost, he said.

Just before 4:30 p.m., as the plane neared Reagan National Airport, the failure led air traffic controllers to report an unauthorized plane in the large restricted airspace over Washington -- even though Fletcher's plane had been cleared to be there, said Rebecca Trexler, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

In a city already on edge, the response was swift.

Security officials ordered politicians and dignitaries to clear the Capitol, just 90 minutes before Reagan's coffin was to arrive.

In the Rotunda, where the former president was to lie in state, an army officer ran in yelling, "Evacuate the building now." Uniformed military officers started running, heels clicking on the marble. Senators also ran.

Police told women to take off their shoes and run. If people dropped items, they were told to leave them. Some officers even loudly counted down the minutes to "impact."

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's move like our lives depend on it. I mean it!" a Washington, D.C., police officer shouted as lawmakers and staffers poured into the streets.

Police hustled House Speaker Dennis Hastert -- second in line to the presidency -- away in a secured motorcade. Across the street, at the Supreme Court, several justices were whisked away in cars as an alarm sounded and officers yelled, "To the basement, to the basement."

Two F-15 fighters from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which protects U.S. airspace, were diverted from patrol to look at the governor's plane close-up. Black Hawk helicopters escorted it in.

Although Fletcher has been involved in such fly-bys before, he has rarely been on the receiving end. In the 1970s, he piloted F-4E aircraft for-NORAD in Alaska and led the interceptions of 10 Soviet military aircraft.

Groves, the chief of staff, said the state police plane's two pilots were in contact with air traffic controllers by radio "the whole time" and he blamed events on miscommunication between airport officials and the Air Force.

"They had been cleared to land," Groves said. Normally "the transponder would have allowed the Air Force to track the plane."

The public embarrassment of the evacuation could spark the state to upgrade its aircraft, Groves said.

The state's Beechcraft King Air is the oldest of its model still in operation, according to serial numbers filed with the U.S. Air Force. Kentucky bought the aircraft from the Air Force in 1997.

Earlier this year, the plane's rudder stopped working during a landing, Groves said. "It's unfortunate that this was the second time this aircraft had a problem," he said. "We will be looking at leasing or purchasing a newer, safer aircraft."

Fletcher was at a conference in California earlier this week and returned to Kentucky yesterday afternoon as scheduled. He chose to take the state plane to Washington because he couldn't find a commercial flight that would get him into Washington in time for the Reagan ceremonies, Groves said.

Groves also said it was cheaper to fly the state plane. A last-minute ticket on Delta Air Lines would have cost more than $1,000, according to Delta.

Besides Fletcher and the two pilots, a member of the governor's state police security detail was aboard the plane. First lady Glenna Fletcher stayed in Kentucky to attend a previously scheduled event.

Fletcher, who represented Central Kentucky in Congress for nearly five years, will be running into old friends and former colleagues at the Reagan ceremonies the rest of the week, and "I suspect he'll get a little bit" of ribbing from them, Groves said.

But yesterday afternoon, one of those friends, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., offered a more sobering analysis. Sweat pouring down his face on the 90-degree muggy day, he said: "This shows the system works."

Yep, this shows the system works. Taking over Afganistan, owning Iraq, that's all been such a success. Americans are not afraid of a creaking old lawnmower-with-wings flown by a guy named "Ernie." No way we'd panic over that. No way. Right?