I first heard it on the radio, and now Drudge is running a major headline:

U.S. FIGHTER JETS FLYING ABOVE WHITE HOUSE... The U.S. Capitol and White House were evacuated Wednesday and alarms range through the buildings. War planes were seen flying overhead and security cars rushed away from the building. Reporters in the White House were told to move to a more secure location.

U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING BEING EVACUATED; FAA TRACKING 'UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT'

MORE: CNN says they've given an "ALL CLEAR," so I guess this was nothing.

MORE: I just heard the District of Columbia's Fire Chief state that the evacuation was triggered by a violation of restricted air space.

WHAT CNN WILL NOT TELL YOU (05/11/05 -- 03:49 p.m.): While they're only being described as member of the "Vintage Aero Club," the pilots have been identified by a woman who claims she saw her husband on television:

(SMOKETOWN, Pa.) - The wife of a student pilot who is believed to have been aboard the small plane that entered restricted air space over Washington, DC, Wednesday says she believes it was just an error.

Jill Martin says her husband, Troy, left late Wednesday morning with pilot Jim Sheaffer of Lititz, Pennsylvania. They were apparently heading for an air show in Lumberton, North Carolina. She says she saw her husband on television.

Jill Martin says her husband was discussing the flight with her Tuesday night after he and Sheaffer made their flight plans. She says he talked about no-fly zones and how they were going to avoid them.

The Martins live in Akron, Pennsylvania.

MORE (03:53 p.m.): Just minutes after refusing to report the names, CNN is now releasing them. (Why not? The pilot names were all over the Internet.)

And if CNN is slower than the Internet, then Jon Stewart doesn't look quite as funny. (Via Ed Cone and Glenn Reynolds.)

MORE: A report was moblogged (with a Blackberry) here before I even heard about it on the radio!

AND MORE (04:29 p.m.): CNN just reported Andrew Cochran's moblog link. (Nice to see credit given where credit is due.)

A-AAND MORE: Declan McCullagh has the details on the tiny Cessna 150 and asks,

was the panic justified?

By the time the buildings were evacuated, F-16s and Blackhawk helicopters appeared to have been in the air and the feds should have known that the threat was minimal. The area around Washington, D.C., is well-monitored by radar and security agencies should have realized that the plane was a small aircraft (the cruise speed of the Cessna is lower than the slowest speed at which large jets can fly). It should have a very different radar profile too.

There's also a broader question about whether the size of the "controlled airsapce" near Washington, D.C., is too large and raises too many false alarms.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not just the airspace directly over the White House. I'm looking at the FAA's visual flight rules Terminal Area Chart right now, and the "Air Defense Identification Zone" stretches from the east side of the Chesapeake Bay almost to the mountains an hour's drive from DC to the west. Any pilot who wishes to fly in the ADIZ must have an altitude-encoding transponder and open a flight plan.