Capitol building briefly evacuated hours before Reagan ceremony

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers, dignitaries and mourners preparing for Ronald Reagan's funeral ceremony raced from the Capitol Wednesday after police feared an airplane was headed for the building and warned: "You have one minute to impact."

Within minutes, authorities determined the small plane was carrying Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher to the funeral and had lost its radio transmission after flying into restricted airspace around Washington. Two F-15 fighter jets were diverted from an air patrol to intercept the plane.

The building was reopened at around 3:30 p.m. CDT, about 1 1/2 hours before the start of the procession bringing Reagan's body to the Capitol Rotunda.

During the period of uncertainty, police had hustled House Speaker Dennis Hastert -- second in line to the presidency -- away in a secured motorcade.

Across the street, at the Supreme Court, police gathered several of the justices and whisked them away in cars. An alarm sounded, and officers yelled at workers: "To the basement, to the basement."

Police in the Capitol had urged people running down staircases to run faster. An officer shouted at one photographer trying to look back through a camera, "You don't have time to look back."

"Incoming plane!" another police officer shouted at reporters asking what was going on.

The governor's Beechcraft King Air 200 had permission to fly into the restricted airspace but briefly lost its identifying transponder signal 13 miles southwest of Reagan National Airport, said Greg Martin, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.