Capitol Hill evacuated after plane flies too close without contact
Saturday, 03 Jan, 2011
0
A pilot tuning into the wrong radio frequency to speak to air traffic controllers led to Washington’s US Capitol and surrounding government buildings being evacuated on Sunday.
Fighter jets were scrambled and the government workers were filed out of their workplaces as the plane flew through restricted airspace without being in contact with controllers.
The pilot of the Piedmont Airlines Flight 4352 originating in South Carolina had been speaking to one set of air traffic controllers during his flight to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport but during the handover to the next set had switched to the wrong radio frequency.
Piedmont is a subsidiary of US Airways Group.
Airport controllers could not communicate with the pilot and as the airport is just five miles from the heart of Washington’s government complex, North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled its jets.
However, after a quarter of an hour, contact was re-established and the plane landed without incident.
by Dinah Hatch
Dinah
Have your say Cancel reply
Most Read
TRAINING & COMPETITION
Posting....
Skip to toolbar
Clearing CSS/JS assets' cache... Please wait until this notice disappears...
Updating... Please wait...
Subscribe/Login to Travel Mole Newsletter
Travel Mole Newsletter is a subscriber only travel trade news publication. If you are receiving this message, simply enter your email address to sign in or register if you are not. In order to display the B2B travel content that meets your business needs, we need to know who are and what are your business needs. ITR is free to our subscribers.

































Global tourism exceeds 1.5 billion travelers announces UN-Tourism
Qatar Airways offers reduced timetable to over 60 destinations
WTTC global tourism reached record economic impact of 11 trillion in 2025
Hands In, UATP join forces for airline multi-card payments
Overseas travelers to the United States declined by 2.5% in 2025