The US Capitol was briefly evacuated on Wednesday when authorities issued a threat alert over a trivial parachute act, causing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to chastise aviation officials for an “inexcusable” failure.
Police responsible for securing the complex at the heart of the US government in Washington released an initial statement just after 6:30 pm (2230 GMT), stating that they had ordered an evacuation due to “tracking an aircraft that poses a probable threat.”
They did not provide any other information. The mini-crisis, however, was caused by a pre-planned flyover at adjacent Nationals Stadium.
The news quickly became a top headline in the United States, where memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which Al-Qaeda flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, and the January 6, 2021 protesters storming of the Capitol are still fresh.
US Capitol Police quickly issued a second statement, stating that the order was issued “out of an abundance of caution,” that there was no longer a “danger” to the complex, and that facilities had reopened for usage.
At the time of the fear, neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate, the two chambers of Congress housed in the Capitol, were in session.
Source: Agencies (editted by Al-Manar English Website)
