AOPA Chief Says It's A Wonder How This Happened

"I don't understand how those pilots from the Lancaster, PA, area could fly into [Washington] area without being aware that we have some of the most restrictive airspace possible."

Those words from Phil Boyer, interviewed on CNN Wednesday, just hours after a Cessna 150K made a deep incursion into the Washington, DC ADIZ, coming within three miles of the White House. The incursion forced the evacuation of the White House, Supreme Court, Capitol and Treasury Department.

On board were Troy Martin, a student, and his instructor, Jim Schaeffer. Boyer told CNN at least one of the two men on board was an AOPA member.

The Cessna 150K was forced to land at Frederick, home of AOPA headquarters. Martin and Schaeffer were immediately taken into custody and questioned by federal agents.

"Now, in defense... of pilots who do incur the outer ring [of the ADIZ], you can get lost. You can get disoriented. You can think of driving a car. You got on a street -- now you start turning -- now all the streets start looking alike. And remember, we're doing this without radio contact because the areas these people were flying in to start with, and apparently where they were going to end up, in North Carolina, were all places you could fly without radio contact."

What about the possibility Martin and Schaeffer might have been shot down?

"Very valid," said Boyer. "There are surface-to-air missiles now stationed around the nation's capital. But at the same time, if we shine a light on this that has any glow to it at all, is that the government system worked. They tracked this plane, without radio contact, they intercepted this airplane with flares and finally got their attention. I'm sure that they tried to do so much earlier. Then they probably assessed that this is a two-seater airplane, single-engine, with two adults in it. It barely carries the fuel to get even halfway to North Carolina. They probably made the calculated decision: Let's not do this."

Boyer, in his interview with CNN, pointed out a 1994 suicide attempt, when a Cessna 152 crashed onto the grounds of the White House. Damage to the building was negligible. In other words, a Cessna 150 or 152 just doesn't pose that much of a threat to the seat of government.

FMI: www.aopa.org