Lax Notification After Monument Blackout

WASHINGTON -- A blackout at the Washington Monument caused a potential flight safety risk in the District overnight.

The lights illuminating the Washington Monument and the emergency beacons that are supposed to warn pilots were off from 7:30 p.m. Tuesday until 1:20 a.m. Wednesday.

Pepco says work on a generator several blocks away -- at 17th and G Streets -- caused the blackout at the monument.

However, no one at Pepco realized the outage, so they never informed the Federal Aviation Administration, Pepco spokesman Bob Dobkin says.

The FAA says someone called headquarters to report an outage, but the caller was instructed to contact the operations center that warns pilots.

Apparently, the person never made the second call. FAA spokesman Les Dorr says it is not clear whether the caller was a private citizen or someone from another agency.

So why didn't the FAA call to make sure the operations center received the information?

The FAA says that is not its procedure.

"The control tower at Reagan National [Airport] knew about it and was warning helicopters," Dorr says.

Helicopter pilots were being notified by 10:30 p.m., Dorr says.

However, it appears the FAA never received notification from U.S. Park Police, Dorr says.

U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. Robert Lachance would not respond to questions of whether U.S. Park Police ever called the FAA.

"We won't comment on procedures we used," Lachance tells WTOP.

Lachance says U.S. Park Police "made sure security was in place around the monument."

"The monument was closed to visitors at 5 p.m., so no tourists were directly affected," Lachance says.

The FAA says it will work with U.S. Park Police to prevent miscommunication.

"We're reaching out to the Park Service, to make sure they know what to do if this happens again," Dorr says.

The Washington Monument is a no-fly zone for passenger planes, so theoretically only helicopters were at direct risk.

(Copyright 2007 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)