’Slow-Moving Blob’ Causes White House Lockdown

By Staff, Agencies

A "slow-moving blob" that may have been a flock of birds triggered a lockdown of the White House and caused the US Capitol to be placed on "restrictive access" Tuesday morning.

Senior national security officials across the agencies convened to coordinate and monitor the situation after the mysterious "blob" was seen on radar at the Capitol Police command center flying just south of the National Mall, according to a law enforcement source.

Military aircraft were scrambled in response.

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Initial assessments indicated that the "blob" was an unauthorized aircraft entering restrictive airspace, leading to the brief lockdown.

The airspace around Washington is more restricted than anywhere else in the country, according to the FAA, as "rules put in place after the 9/11 attacks establish 'national defense airspace' over the area and limit aircraft operations to those with an FAA and Transportation Security Administration authorization."

"Senior officials across the interagency are monitoring the situation on a national event conference call. NORAD aircraft are on site and responding. Plane is not considered hostile at this time," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell said during the early stages of the event.

But hours after the all clear was given, a military official told CNN that a final determination had not yet been made as to what exactly caused the event.

A US Capitol Police source also said it is "still not known" what happened other than there was "a big slow-moving blob of something" on radar that caused concern the object could be a drone.

US Coast Guard helicopters that arrived to intercept found no threat requiring further action, prompting law enforcement to search on the ground for a possible drone, the military official said.