Ohio NASA Lockdown Spurred by Test System Glitch

A NASA research center was locked down Friday because a misdirected phone call during an emergency notification system test at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida led workers in Ohio to believe there was a gunman on campus.

There was no shooting, but a NASA Glenn Research Center employee thought there was, said center spokeswoman Lori Rachul.

A Glenn center employee has the same last name as an employee at the NASA center running the test and mistakenly received an automated call at about 9:30 a.m. warning that there was a shooter in the facility, Glenn center Director Ramon Lugo III said.

The employee told a supervisor, and the information went up the chain of command at Glenn, where officials were unaware of the test and ordered a lockdown. It was called off when officials realized the error.

"I want to apologize to everybody for the inconvenience and the stress that resulted from the situation," Lugo said. "I have been assured by NASA headquarters that they're going to be conducting a review of this incident to assure that it doesn't occur in the future."

Lugo would not say which space agency center was conducting the test, but a union official in Cleveland said it originated at the Kennedy Space Center.

"This whole thing was a fiasco," said Virginia Cantwell, president of a union representing 1,345 NASA Glenn employees.

She said the false alarm was costly and that worried employees thought a gunman was stalking the grounds. "People are very upset about this," she added.

Lugo said employees were told to lock themselves in their offices and stay inside and acknowledged that some were "traumatized" by the event.

NASA Glenn was placed under what was described as a "complete lockdown." During the lockdown, a spokeswoman declined to confirm reports that a gunman was being sought. Loudspeakers announced "all clear" and...