A baseball pre-game ceremony in Washington, D.C. triggered a Capitol evacuation this afternoon.
In honor of Military Appreciation Day, the Washington Nationals coordinated a pre-game ceremony in which members of the U.S. Army Golden Knights, a nickname for the U.S. Army Parachute Team, parachuted out of a plane and landed on the field of Nationals Park.
The only problem was, the airplane, which circled above D.C. and the stadium multiple times, was reported and Capitol Police mistakenly identified it as “a probable threat.” In response, the entire Capitol was put under lockdown around 6:30 p.m. EST, albeit briefly.
Pretty cool to have the Army Golden Knights drop in before the game pic.twitter.com/045KJXAGSp
— Gus's Mom (@aNatsFan) April 20, 2022
After a few minutes, though, the threat was deemed nonexistent, and the evacuation order was lifted. While the reason for the mix-up is still unclear, officials believe the pilot of the aircraft may not have had proper clearance, or may not have properly reported taking off.
Per @flightradar24, this U.S. Army parachute team aircraft was circling the area for a while. It’s apparently for tonight’s Nationals game.
It appears that someone forgot to tell USCP, triggering tonight’s evacuation order……… pic.twitter.com/2i8uvlXf4t
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 20, 2022
“Congress looks forward to reviewing the results of a thorough after-action review that determines what precisely went wrong today and who at the Federal Aviation Administration will be held accountable for this outrageous and frightening mistake,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement regarding the mix-up.
The plane was a twin-engine aircraft which took off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, and stayed clear of restricted airspace the entire time. It then landed back at Andrews at 6:50 p.m. EST, following the successful landing of the parachuters.
What did you think of this quite serious mix-up? Let us know, by either leaving a reaction below or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
