Judgment from on high? The strange stories of Richard Nixon’s aerial assailants.
One guy buzzed the White House in a stolen helicopter. Days later another tried to crash a plane into it. Who were these odd people?
Fifty-two years ago last week, on February 17, 1974, a strange thing happened near the White House. A Huey helicopter flew over from Maryland, descended near the executive mansion and hovered for 6 minutes. It was not supposed to be there. The aircraft was stolen a few hours earlier from a U.S. Army base at Fort Meade, Maryland. Before it arrived at the White House, the chopper buzzed several locations in the Washington area, including the airport, and even landed briefly. When it finally ended up on the South Lawn of the White House, however, strangely the intrusion caused little alarm. Taking off again, the Secret Service initially didn’t try to shoot at the chopper. It was, however, pursued by two helicopters from the Maryland State Police.
After the State Police got involved, an aerial chase began. The pilot of the intruding helicopter managed to force one of the cops’ aircraft down, and then ominously returned toward the White House. By now the Secret Service definitely was involved. They began shooting at the chopper with handguns and shotguns. Finally the State Police forced it to land. The chase had taken about an hour and fortunately injuries were only slight.
