House Speaker Nancy Pelosi evoked the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot as she slammed the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to notify the Capitol Police of a military parachuting demonstration taking place at a nearby Washington Nationals baseball game on Wednesday night.
The apparent miscommunication between the FAA and law enforcement on Wednesday evening triggered a mass evacuation of the Capitol after authorities were alerted to an unidentified plane in the restricted airspace over the nation’s capital. Minutes later, officials gave the all-clear after they were informed it was a stunt at Nationals Park.
“The Federal Aviation Administration’s apparent failure to notify Capitol Police of the pre-planned flyover Nationals Stadium is outrageous and inexcusable,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The unnecessary panic caused by this apparent negligence was particularly harmful for Members, staff and institutional workers still grappling with the trauma of the attack on their workplace on January 6th.”
The FAA confirmed the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team had filed the required documentation to operate within the National Capital Region’s airspace before the stunt, noting the pilots maintained communication with the agency throughout the operation. However, the Capitol Police said it was not given advance notice of the flight, prompting the evacuation procedures.
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“The United States Capitol Police must make split-second decisions that could make the difference between life and death. The decision to evacuate the campus is not one we take lightly,” officials said. “Every week the USCP is made aware of hundreds of authorized flights in the restricted airspace. It is extremely unusual not to be made aware of a flight in advance.”
It’s not entirely clear how the miscommunication ensued. However, the FAA said it would conduct a “thorough and expeditious” investigation to determine the cause of confusion.
Pelosi said Congress plans to review the results of the review to understand “what precisely went wrong today and who at the Federal Aviation Administration will be held accountable for this outrageous and frightening mistake.”
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The Nationals have not yet publicly responded to the incident and did not respond to a request for comment by the Washington Examiner. The flyover did little to inspire the home team though, as they lost 11-2 to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
