Bush not told about plane scare until after biking

WASHINGTON - United States president George W Bush was not told for nearly an hour while he finished a bike ride about a breach in White House airspace that prompted the highest alert since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the White House said.

The White House said the Secret Service held off informing the president because he was not in danger.

Bush was about a half-an-hour into his ride at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre in Maryland when an unidentified Cessna airplane came near the White House, sending the Secret Service scrambling to evacuate vice president Dick Cheney and move First Lady Laura Bush to a secure location.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president's Secret Service detail was informed about the plane at about 11:59am Wednesday (3.59am Thursday NZ time), when the decision was made to raise the threat level at the White House to "yellow."

Fighter planes were immediately scrambled to intercept the plane, and the threat level at the White House was raised all the way to "red" before the "all clear" was given at 12:14 p.m.

McClellan said Bush was informed about the incident around 12:50 p.m. at the end of his ride. He left the reserve around 12:57 p.m. and returned to the White House at around 1:30 p.m., well after the security scare had ended.

"A determination was made that the threat posed no danger to the president since he was at an off-site location, and protocols were in place to protect people in the area of the threat," McClellan said. "Those protocols did not require any presidential authority."

"Given such circumstances and the fact that the plane turned away from the White House, the decision was made to inform the president upon conclusion of his bike ride," McClellan said.

Bush had left the White House at about 11:03 a.m. and had arrived at Patuxent for the bike ride at 11:34 a.m.

- REUTERS