Originally Posted by L1011...N/StoHNL!
It's absolutely no fun to run for your life with little or no information. I was in the Capitol at work in the Senate when the police began franticly shouting for everyone to get out. At first it sounded like a fight or disturbance in the corridors outside the Chamber. Then they burst in yelling for us to go. We ran. Get outside and had to dodge the armored Suburbans speeding leadership away. Heard, then spied, the F-16 banking hard over Union Station. The Capitol cops with their huge assault shotguns are running around screaming to run faster. An elderly lady had a heart attack near one of the office buildings, and was being carried by staffers away from the scene. People fell in the scramble. Why? All because a Cessna happens to make his way somewhere he doesn't belong. This crap has to stop. They need to blow one of these people out of the sky to get anyone approaching Washington to be a little more responsible. I got my information by using the Nextel direct connect to family outside of the metro area, asking them to turn on national news. Utter chaos. All in a day's work? This sucks.
Good thing Fiji's only 2 weeks away!
I think the real culprit is the USCP. Panick and shouting does not help, and only creates chaos. What they did was shouting fire in a full theater. i have no respect for the idiots trying to mimik Rambo. Though to their defence it was probably a communication error. They were probably told and wircraft is flying towards the Capitol, without indication of size and real danger. People would have been safer to stay inside or in the basement.
In any case, on Sept. 11, someone came to our conference room saying a plane had hit the WTC. At that time I thought: What an idiot, these terrorists, flying a Cessna into the WTC, not much damage there ... well I was worng but I didn't panic. Same thing here if they would give more information everyone can understand the real risk much better.