…Pilots “By The Book”…

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GA flights have been banned into Reagan National since 9/11 but Fletcher’s flight managed to attain a waiver. Fletcher’s communication’s director (Hogan) speculated that despite the special circumstances of the flight and despite the failed transponder, ATC staff simply didn’t tell anyone on the ground in Washington that the governor was on his way. “It would appear the air traffic controllers did not notify any of the other agencies about the situation,” Hogan told the Associated Press. FAA spokesman Greg Martin told AVweb the FAA, along with other agencies involved in the security of Washington, D.C., will meet to discuss where the system broke down. Martin stressed the pilots were in no way to blame. “The pilots on the flight were by the book,” he said. “The pilots did everything they were supposed to do; they had all the proper waivers and clearances.” Martin noted that when faced with what appeared to be an “unidentified aircraft,” those in charge of security of the Capitol (perhaps looking at radar screens but lacking information of the faulty transponder previously reported to ATC) had “to make decisions in a very compressed time frame” and they would naturally “err on the side of caution.” Although there were no reports of injuries in the evacuations, there might be some missing women’s shoes. (Women dressed for the memorial, rather than a track event, were told to ditch their high heels so they could run faster.)

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