A two-foot long "quad-copter" drone crashed into a tree inside the White House grounds early Monday morning, triggering a two-hour lockdown of the complex's perimeter. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed the crash this morning, though he claimed the drone is probably nothing to worry about.
"There is a device that has been recovered by the Secret Service at the White House,'' Earnest said. "The early indications are that it does not pose any sort of ongoing threat to anybody at the White House.''
Reuters reports that a Secret Service agent witnessed the drone crashing into a tree on the southeast side of the White House complex at about 3 a.m. From NBC Washington:
Police, fire and other emergency vehicles swarmed around the White House in the pre-dawn hours, with several clustered near the southeast entrance to the mansion. The White House was dark and the entire perimeter was on lockdown until around 5 a.m., when pass holders who work in the complex were allowed inside.
The president and Michelle Obama are currently in India, though it's not clear if their daughters were home when the drone crashed.
"An investigation is underway to determine the origin of this commercially available device, motive, and to identify suspects. As additional information becomes available we will update our statement," Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary told CNN.
The incident comes just five months after the Secret Service allowed a knife-wielding intruder to run into the White House's East Room and four months after a man hopped the White House fence, the security of which doesn't seem to be a concern.
[Image via NBC Washington]
