The Capitol Police announced there is no threat Wednesday evening shortly after sending out an alert to people across the Capitol complex to evacuate the area due to aircraft taking part in a parachuting stunt at a nearby Washington Nationals baseball game.
“The Capitol was evacuated out of an abundance of caution this evening. There is no threat at the Capitol. More details to come,” the Capitol Police said in a tweet at 6:48 p.m.
CAPITOL POLICE GIVE ‘ALL CLEAR’ AFTER SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE FOUND AT SUPREME COURT
About 15 minutes earlier, the Capitol Police issued an alert ordering people to evacuate the Capitol and surrounding facilities. “The USCP is tracking an aircraft that poses a probable threat to the Capitol Complex,” the Capitol Police said in the first statement.
ALERT at CAPITOL: pic.twitter.com/N2L5eq2ZIv
— Matt Laslo (@MattLaslo) April 20, 2022
“The Congressional buildings are now open for staff to go back inside. Our federal, state and local partners are still working to get more information,” the Capitol Police said in a 8:12 p.m. tweet.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the Capitol Police for its vigilance and placed tentative blame on the Federal Aviation Administration for a lack of communication.
“The Federal Aviation Administration’s apparent failure to notify Capitol Police of the pre-planned flyover Nationals Stadium is outrageous and inexcusable. 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,” Pelosi said in a statement, referring to the Capitol riot.
“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,” the California Democrat added.
The FAA said it will conduct a “thorough and expeditious review” of what happened and share updates.
.@FAANews confirms it will review Capitol area flight, parachute jump incident pic.twitter.com/XrU2NozZE1
— davidshepardson (@davidshepardson) April 21, 2022
The parachuting stunt was part of the pregame demonstration at Nationals Park, where the Nationals were hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks. The plane was carrying members of the U.S. Army Golden Knights, who parachuted into the stadium, according to ESPN.
The single-engine aircraft had “not coordinated appropriately,” sources told a CNN reporter. After dropping off the parachutists, the plane “then entered the flight exclusion zone, which triggered the alarm,” as “multiple Capitol security officials say there was no heads-up, which they usually get. That triggered the alarm and prompted the Capitol evacuation,” said a Fox News reporter.
At the time of the Capitol evacuation, President Joe Biden was meeting with top Pentagon officials at the White House, according to Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Nationals for comment.
