Authorities evacuated the U.S. Capitol on Saturday afternoon after a small aircraft was reported to have entered restricted airspace.

The aircraft, a Mooney M2oC, had flown from an airport in Westfield, Massachusetts, when it entered the restricted airspace on 1:30 p.m. Air traffic controllers had tried communicating with the plane but had been unable to do so.

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The U.S. Capitol police called for an AIRCON RED alert and immediately rushed to evacuate the Capitol, as well as the Supreme Court Buildings and the Library of Congress around 2:00 p.m., according to CNN.

Eventually, contact was resumed with the aircraft and was escorted out of the restricted airspace by two F-16 fighter jets where it landed in Mount Airy in North Carolina.

According to Transportation Security Administration spokesman Ross Feinstein, the aircraft seemed to have wandered innocently into the restricted area. The pilot was "just confused" and did not seem to harbor any malicious intentions, Feinstein posted on Twitter.

Still, he said, the Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the incident.

After the scare, the people were given to go signal that it was okay to go back about 30 minutes after the evacuation, the Washington Post has learned.

Interviews with civilians showed mixed reactions.

"We just got in there, like I said; we were excited to see it. Now we've got a story to tell. We were evacuated out of the Capitol building," Richard Chapin said, who was in the Capitol before the evacuation alert had been given.

Victoria Chandler who was part of a tour described the scare. The tour guide had suddenly gotten anxious and herded them to the steps and out of the building.

"I grabbed two of the youngest girls and my mother got me and we started running down the stairs. We got outside and a man told us to run as far as we could because it was not a drill," she said.

A similar incident occurred in April 2009 when the White House and the Capitol had been locked down when a small aircraft had entered the restricted airspace.

In January 2011, a commercial airplane had also accidentally entered the restricted airspace.

TagsTransportation Security Administration, Supreme Court Building, Library of Congress, US Capitol, Federal Aviation, restricted airspace