Police Briefly Evacuate Capitol over ‘Aircraft Intrusion,’ Later Clarify ‘No Threat’

The U.S. Capitol Police briefly evacuated the seat of Congress on Wednesday evening after warning of a “probable threat” that turned out to be a plane dropping parachutists over Nationals Park before a baseball game.

“The USCP is tracking an aircraft that poses a probable threat to the Capitol Complex,” the police said at 6:30 p.m. in an alert via email, with instructions on where to evacuate from various buildings at the Capitol. The subject line of the email read “Evacuate Now: Aircraft Intrusion.”

USCP rescinded the alert minutes later, saying there was “no threat” to the Capitol.

The aircraft was in fact carrying members of the U.S. Army Golden Knights, according to the Associated Press, who then parachuted into Nationals Park ahead of a game between the Nationals and Arizona Diamondbacks. The plane was circling in restricted airspace near the Capitol.

It was not immediately clear why USCP were not informed of the flight, and investigators were looking into the issue, two sources told the AP.

“This is not supposed to happen,” a senior Capitol security official told Fox News. “This looks bad.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) blamed the scare on the “apparent failure” of the Federal Aviation Administration to coordinate the flight with Capitol officials.

“The Federal Aviation Administration’s apparent failure to notify Capitol Police of the pre-planned flyover over 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.”