De Plane, Boss, De Plane

By now the whole world knows about the small plane that ventured into restricted air space over DC yesterday. The incident prompted evacuations of the White House, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court. In the end, however, it turned out to be a false alarm.

The aircraft, piloted by a student pilot and his flight instructor, had gotten lost and triggered a near state of panic in DC (Eyewitness account--audio). The two men in the Cessna finally realized something was up when the two F-16's that had been buzzing them began firing warning flares. By the time the men turned around, they were about three miles from the Executive Mansion, where they were apparently planning to land and ask for directions.

A flight instructor caused all this commotion!?! Dude, if you take off in a plane with no instruments and no maps, and then act stunned when you get lost, you've got absolutely no freaking business teaching someone else how to fly!

Some criticism has been leveled about the handling of the incident. Mayor Anthony Williams of DC was especially upset that no one bothered to tell him what was going on. Well, sorry about that, chief. But the police had about three minutes to clear over 15,000 people from Capitol Hill, so perhaps they were a bit too busy to worry about making a courtesy phone call. Now go suck on your pacifier.

There is one thing that has been lost in all this talk about the plane almost being shot down: What about the people on the ground? The wreckage would have had to fall somewhere. When the Cessna turned around, it was already over the neighborhoods of DC, and there's not a whole lot of empty space below. Suppose the debris had ended up falling onto a crowded street, someone's house, a hospital, a crowded school, or--heaven forbid--a Starbucks? Would the ensuing mayhem have been worth saving a now evacuated building?

If someone wants to destroy our cherished symbols of freedom, fine. Let them. They're just fancy pieces of brick, mortar, and stone. Those we can always rebuild.

But don't f*ck with my latte.