Capitol Scrambles at Another Plane Scare

May 23, 2005 — -- The U.S. Capitol was briefly evacuated early this evening due to a scare from a small aircraft that lost radio contact with aviation authorities.

A Cessna 340 traveling from Knoxville, Tenn., to Gaithersburg, Md., landed in Gaithersburg after F-16 fighters scrambled and set off flares over Silver Spring, Md., to get the pilot's attention, officials said. The plane's transponder was working but air traffic controllers in the Washington, D.C., area lost radio contact, which is required for flying in the Air Defense Identification Zone.

The plane is a Canadian registered aircraft, officials said. An electrical failure on board at some point during the flight caused the plane to lose its ability to "squawk and talk" -- it was not sending out the discreet signal that identifies the plane, and it was not able to have radio contact.

The Capitol was evacuated for a few minutes shortly after 6 p.m.

Earlier today, the government revoked the license of thepilot in charge of another small plane that flew within three miles ofthe White House on May 11, saying he was an "unacceptable risk to safety"in the sky.

The punishment was meted out to Hayden L. "Jim" Sheaffer afterthe errant flight earlier this month led to the scrambling of military aircraft andthe panicked evacuation of thousands of people from the WhiteHouse, the Capitol and the Supreme Court.

Sheaffer's student, 36-year-old Troy Martin, who had logged only30 hours of flight time, was flying the plane when the militaryaircraft intercepted it, the Federal Aviation Administration said.