A parachute display prior to a Washington Nationals game caused US Capitol Police to order an evacuation of the congressional complex on Wednesday evening, as reports swirled that the force was never told about the exercise.
via: Uproxx
Around 6:30 p.m. ET, there was considerable alarm in Washington, D.C., as Capitol Police announced they were evacuating the U.S. Capitol complex due to “an aircraft that poses a probable threat.”
U.S. Capitol Police alert just now: “The USCP is tracking an aircraft that poses a probable threat to the Capitol Complex.”
Immediate evacuations ordered pic.twitter.com/I4oxv06jrG
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 20, 2022
As everyone at the Capitol building evacuated in a hurry and the rest of the country waited with baited breath to find out if there was an attack of some kind or what was happening, the Capitol Police quickly announced there was no threat to the Capitol and that the evacuation order, which was out of “an abundance of caution,” was no longer in place.
The Capitol was evacuated out of an abundance of caution this evening.
There is no threat at the Capitol.
More details to come. pic.twitter.com/7qqxqQyzlD
— U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) April 20, 2022
That led to plenty of questions as to what happened, and it turns out the culprit was the plane full of U.S. Army parachuters circling downtown Washington ahead of a jump into Nationals Park ahead of Washington’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Per @flightradar24, this U.S. Army parachute team aircraft was circling the area for a while. It’s apparently for tonight’s Nationals game.
It appears that someone forgot to tell USCP, triggering tonight’s evacuation order……… pic.twitter.com/2i8uvlXf4t
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 20, 2022
?NEW — Capitol evacuation — Single engine aircraft. Parachutists into Nats Park. Not coordinated appropriately, per two people directly familiar tell @CNN
— Mike Valerio (@ValerioCNN) April 20, 2022
Meanwhile, folks at the Nats game all knew what was going on and were happily watching the parachuters glide into the stadium while chaos ensued down the road at the Capitol.
HERE THEY COME @Nationals FANS!! pic.twitter.com/F64drmj1Zx
— Olivia Garvey (@Olivia7News) April 20, 2022
It is an all-time misunderstanding and, luckily, it didn’t lead to anything disastrous. As some reporters noted, the fact that jets weren’t scrambled immediately shows that on the military side, they seemed aware of what was happening — which makes sense being they were Army parachuters — but clearly somewhere along the way the Nationals forgot to inform all the authorities they needed to and the Capitol Police were understandably concerned about a plane circling overhead.
The post The U.S. Capitol Got Evacuated Because Of Miscommunication Over The Nationals Pre-Game Army Parachuters [Photos + Video] appeared first on LOVEBSCOTT.
