Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN FREEDMAN and STEWART M. POWELL HEARST NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
The penetration of White House security early Monday by a small airplane raised questions about air defense around the executive mansion and demonstrated its vulnerability to a kamikaze-style attack.
President Clinton and his family were not in the White House when the single-engine plane hit at 1:49 a.m. They were staying in a government guest house across the street because of renovation work at the White House. They returned to their White House residence Monday.
The pilot, a truck driver from Maryland who apparently was suicidal, died in the crash.
Administration officials on Monday were skittish on the subject of what, if anything, went wrong with the White House air defense plan.
The White House security system includes roof-top teams equipped with shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. The rules governing the activation of the teams are among Washington's best-kept secrets.
At a White House briefing, Treasury Undersecretary Ronald Noble, who oversees the Secret Service, replied vaguely to questions about the mansion's security system.
Asked whether such an intrusion could happen again, Noble replied: ``The president, the first family, the vice president and the vice president's family have full confidence in the ability of the Secret Service to protect them.
``For me to speculate about what specific event might or might not occur would be inappropriate.''
The Federal Aviation Administration bars pilots from flying near the White House. This no-fly zone, designated P56A on FAA aerial navigation charts, incorporates the heart of Washington best known to tourists, stretching from the Lincoln Memorial past the White House and up Capitol Hill to a few blocks beyond the Capitol building.
However, security specialists have long viewed the White House as vulnerable to suicide attackers, especially from the air, because the White House is located in a densely populated area that also includes a major route in and out of close-by National Airport.
``The answer is `Hell, yes,' it is possible to do a kamikaze attack with a small prop plane skimming the trees,'' said Frank Ault, a government consultant on air interdiction.
``There's so much stuff flying here in the Washington area, it's easy to come whipping down the Potomac River and go into the White House before anyone could wake up.''
Neil Livingstone, a Washington-based terrorism and security expert who has written eight books on the subject, said total presidential security is impossible in an open society.
``We don't live in a dictatorship where we blow away anyone who appears to be a threat,'' he said. ``You cannot wrap the president in an absolute cloak of security.''
After apparently leaving an airport north of Baltimore, Maryland truck driver Frank Corder flew the plane toward downtown Washington along 17th Street to a point near the Washington Monument before making a sharp turn and heading back north, over the White House fence and onto the South Lawn.
Officials said 14 seconds elapsed between the time the plane was visually detected inside the no-fly zone and the time of the crash. No shots were fired at the plane as it approached, officials said.
The aircraft tore into the grass of the South Lawn about 50 feet from the White House, leaving deep gouge marks, then smashed through a large magnolia tree before coming to rest against the wall of the White House adjacent to the presidential doctor's office. It sheared off some branches of the tree, which was planted during Andrew Jackson's presidency, from 1829 to 1837.
At an afternoon White House briefing, Secret Service Agent Carl Meyer said uniformed White House guards were able to warn the Secret Service command center of an incoming plane only moments before the crash at 1:49 a.m.
``The first thing we had to determine was what was the situation - was this a plane that just ran out of gas, did someone have a heart attack, or was it a diversion?'' he said. ``We didn't have a good sense of what was involved here.''
The Secret Service checked the crashed aircraft for explosives or weapons but found none.
Livingstone noted that distinguishing a small plane with hostile intent from the dozens of other aircraft on radar screens is difficult until it intrudes into the no-fly zone.
In addition to planes landing and taking off from National Airport, the fifth busiest airport in the nation, police and other helicopters constantly are buzzing around downtown Washington, skirting the periphery of the no-fly zone.
Larry Sheafe, a former top official with the U.S. Secret Service, told the Cable News Network it was ``very difficult'' to secure a building such as the White House in the middle of a major city near a busy metropolitan airport.
Because the president was not at the White House at the time of incident, Sheafe noted that security was ``much different'' than when the president was in the mansion.
Small aircraft flying low without radio communication or a transponder beacon in operation are difficult to spot with radar, he said.
Even if an unknown aircraft appears suddenly on radar screens, ``you have just seconds to react, and that's the difficulty,'' Sheafe said.
In addition, White House security forces must be alert to the possibility of an aircraft in trouble that might choose the South Lawn for an emergency landing.
A hasty decision to shoot at a plane or helicopter might result in the loss of innocent lives, Livingstone said.
``It's not really feasible to do too much,'' Livingstone said. ``If you shoot and miss, a missile could go over Potomac and have consequences in the residential communities there.''
Also, according to Ault, the reaction time of White House defenders is very short, ``even if they saw him.''
A better defense system is possible ``if you want to surround the White House with [anti-aircraft] guns,'' Ault said. ``But it's expensive, time consuming and it runs against the human psyche to do it.''
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB