Congress warned of accidental shoot-down

WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- A house panel warned Thursday communications failures might lead to mistakenly shooting down an innocent plane as a terror threat.

FAA officials told the aviation subcommittee that military and customs aircraft were scrambled June 9, after a light plane carrying Gov. Ernie Fletcher, R-Ky., entered the restricted airspace around Washington, during the heightened security surrounding the funeral of President Reagan.

"I think we're very lucky that there hasn't been a catastrophic mistake made already," said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., expressing a concern shared by lawmakers and by representatives of the general aviation community who own and fly small planes.

The aviation panel is one of a number of congressional panels studying the June 9 incident, when a malfunctioning transponder on the Fletcher plane caused it to be wrongly identified as a potential terror threat, leading to the evacuation of the Capitol.

Subcommittee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., told United Press International there are serious and continuing problems with the way the airspace above the capital was protected. "The biggest issue is who's in charge," he said.