FAA apologizes for failure that led to Capitol evacuation

The evacuation of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday night occurred after aviation officials failed to provide advance notice to police about a fly-over at a baseball game in Washington, they acknowledged Friday evening.

The Federal Aviation Administration apologized for the episode in an emailed statement, saying “we deeply regret that we contributed to a precautionary evacuation of the Capitol complex.” A U.S. Army parachute team had been given permission to fly over the Washington Nationals baseball stadium.

The episode took place in some of the most restricted airspace in the U.S.

Congress was not in session this week, but hundreds of staff people, other employees and members of the public were sent fleeting from Capitol Hill.

The evacuation occurred as the investigation continued into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and stirred memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in which one of the planes hijacked by terrorists struck the Pentagon.

“We value our partnership with the U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement agencies, and we are taking immediate steps to ensure that we always coordinate well in advance with other agencies to avoid confusion over future aviation events in the Washington, D.C., area,” the FAA said in the statement.

The U.S. Capitol Police evacuation alert went out at 6:32 p.m on Wednesday. The all-clear was officially announced shortly after 8 p.m. and the Capitol re-opened.

The no-fly area around Washington—called the Flight-Restricted Zone—is designed to protect the White House, Congress and other sensitive government offices in Washington. It was imposed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The zone extends about 17 miles from Washington Reagan National Airport in Virginia, located just a few miles from those government facilities, and as high as 18,000 feet.

The Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday night. The office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also did not immediately respond.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to her statement on Wednesday night, when she said the FAA’s “apparent failure to notify the Capitol Police of the pre-planned flyover Nationals stadium is outrageous and inexcusable.”