Late Notice To District In Air Scare Spurs Talks

Homeland Security Chief Meets Williams

Mayor Anthony A. Williams met yesterday with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to pursue complaints that the city did not get sufficient notice about a plane that was flying into restricted airspace over the capital last week.

Williams (D) later issued a statement expressing confidence that steps would be taken to improve communication in future emergencies. He and other D.C. officials were not alerted to last Wednesday's scare until evacuations had begun at the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court.

Although the errant Cessna 150 was diverted safely from Washington, D.C. officials said the delayed notification could have had serious consequences because it gave local emergency agencies little time to react.

Williams sought the meeting with Chertoff last week, and the session took place yesterday at the headquarters of the federal Department of Homeland Security.

The discussion "went very well," Williams said. His spokesman, Vince Morris, said the mayor expects clearer emergency alert protocols to be developed after federal and District officials review how the incident was handled. The review should be done by early next week, Morris said.

In his statement, Williams said that he and Chertoff agreed that federal and regional officials must improve communication and notification procedures, adding, "I feel confident that changes are in the works that will make the people who live and work in this city safer."

Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for Chertoff, gave few details about the 45-minute meeting, which was attended by five to 10 people, including Deputy Mayor Edward D. Reiskin, Homeland Security Operations Center representatives and the secretary's incident management team in Chertoff's conference room.

"The secretary and the mayor had a productive meeting and discussed areas where we could collectively strengthen information sharing and notification during times of an incident," Roehrkasse said.

Williams said last week that public safety was put at risk by the 40-minute delay in getting word to city officials that the small airplane had entered the restricted flight zone around Washington. D.C. officials said they learned about the incident from television news reports and a chance phone call to a police sergeant liaison who was assigned to the Homeland Security Operations Center.

Although Sgt. Guy Poirier was at the operations center, he was in a room with law enforcement officials who do not have high-security clearance. Federal authorities with such clearances in another room reported monitoring the actions starting at 11:28 a.m. Poirier said he was not told of events until receiving a telephone query from a colleague with the U.S. Capitol Police.

"Nearly four years after September 11, 2001, we still are fighting the same fight,'' Williams said last week. He warned that "critical and potentially life-or-death information about threats facing District residents needs to be shared immediately -- not five, 10 or 15 minutes after the fact."

At D.C. police headquarters, Chief Charles H. Ramsey acknowledged that someone had disconnected a phone line that would have provided emergency communications from the Federal Aviation Administration. Ramsey said that the city is adding the FAA line to other D.C. government emergency operations centers and that ensuring it will be monitored round-the-clock.

The pilots of the single-engine Cessna, Hayden "Jim" Sheaffer and Troy Martin, were released after officials determined that they had become lost while traveling from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and posed no security threat. Officials have said they expect the FAA to take action against Sheaffer, who was at the controls when the plane headed into Washington. The aircraft was diverted to Frederick by fighter jets and helicopters.