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Home / Complete 9/11 Timeline / 10:30 a.m. September 11, 2001: Park Police Helicopter Responds to Flood of Reported Emergencies around Washington

10:30 a.m. September 11, 2001: Park Police Helicopter Responds to Flood of Reported Emergencies around Washington

Entity Tags: Keith E. Bohn, United States Park Police, US Secret Service
Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events

A US Park Police helicopter that has been assisting in the response to the Pentagon attack has to respond to a sudden influx of reports of emergencies that are in fact false alarms. [US Naval Historical Center, 11/19/2001; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 164] The helicopter, with the call sign “Eagle II,” is one of two Park Police Aviation Unit helicopters that arrived at the Pentagon shortly after the attack there (see Shortly After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [NBC 4, 9/11/2003; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 161-162] After transporting two patients from the Pentagon to the Washington Hospital Center, Eagle II returned to the aviation unit’s hangar in Anacostia Park to pick up a Secret Service agent. [McDonnell, 2004, pp. 22 pdf file] Sergeant Keith Bohn, the pilot of Eagle II, will later recall: “The Secret Service had some requests for us to check. Things like the White House perimeter, the downtown areas, the rooftops. There were a lot of things coming up.” Suddenly, the helicopter has to respond to a mass of reports of additional emergencies. According to Bohn, “All of a sudden, everything was just unbelievable—to check bridges for abandoned cars, which were believed to be packed with explosives.” Eagle II is then “running from one report of things to another report.” These reported emergencies turn out to be false alarms. According to Bohn, “Actually, in the city [of Washington, DC], nothing else, in essence, happened that day, but… lots of fear was running rampant.” Bohn will add, “We were chasing our tail and everyone else’s all around town from Memorial Bridge, 14th Street Bridge, the White House; the Capitol was involved in wanting some perimeter checks, doing all that.” [US Naval Historical Center, 11/19/2001; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 164] Numerous emergencies in the Washington area are being incorrectly reported around this time (see (Between 9:50-10:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Broadcasting and Cable, 8/26/2002]