The chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard says officials will review
training procedures after a scare on the eighth anniversary of the
September 11 terrorist attacks.
The television network CNN
initially reported Friday that the Coast Guard fired 10 shots at a
suspicious boat on the Potomac River in Washington.
But Vice Admiral John Currier says no shots were fired during what was a routine training exercise.
The
event took place just minutes after President Barack Obama spoke nearby
at the Pentagon. Mr. Obama was attending a ceremony to mark the
anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in
2001.
Currier says because of the media reports, the Federal
Aviation Administration temporarily kept aircraft on the ground at
Reagan National Airport, next to the Potomac.
Currier
says the words "bang, bang," were spoken on the radio as part of the
training. He also says anyone with a scanner could have intercepted
the open communications over an unencrypted radio channel.
The admiral adds that his comments do not constitute an apology for a normal training exercise.
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