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December 6, 2009
1974 White House helicopter incident
I saw some archival footage of this event in the movie "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" tonight on IFC. Somehow, I'd missed this story. Granted, it happened when I was 8, but I'm still surprised I've never heard about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_K._Preston
At 2 A.M. on February 17, 1974, Robert K. Preston, a U.S. Army private, stole a United States Army helicopter from Fort Meade, Maryland, flew it to Washington, D.C., and hovered for six minutes over the White House before descending on the south lawn, about 100 yards from the West Wing.[1][2][3][4][5][6] There was no initial attempt from the Executive Protective Service to shoot the helicopter down, and he later took off and was chased by two Maryland State Police helicopters. Preston forced one of the police helicopters down through his maneuvering of the helicopter, and then returned to the White House. This time, as he hovered above the south grounds, the Executive Protective Service fired at him with shotguns and submachine guns. Preston was injured slightly, and landed his helicopter.[7]
At the time of the incident, President Richard Nixon was travelling in Florida, and First Lady Pat Nixon was in Indianapolis, Indiana, visiting their sick daughter.[8]
Posted by Rob Kiser on December 6, 2009 at 5:34 PM
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