The main benefit of the security scare that gripped the Nation's Capital Wednesday is that Department of Homeland Security officials now have better insight into what areas work remains to be done to keep government officials and facilities safe from terrorist attacks as well as unintentional and accidental dangers.

While officials have voiced praise over how the perceived threat was handled, David Heyman, homeland security director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, put the situation into proper perspective when he observed that more needs to be done to prevent unauthorized flights and protect restricted airspace from violations such as occurred Wednesday.

"The scare today reminds us both of the challenges we still face in securing our nation's skies as well as the significant steps we've taken to protect against future attacks," Heyman said. "We have more work to do."

For the two men who were responsible for the scare, Wednesday was no doubt the most embarrassing and troubling day of their lives. What had begun as a seemingly routine 400-mile flight from Smoketown Airport in Lancaster County to an air show in North Carolina, where the two men had planned to volunteer, turned ugly when they entered restricted airspace and got within three miles of the White House.

The scare, which lasted 45 minutes and which provided a real test for the capital's post-Sept. 11 response system, resulted in the scrambling of warplanes and evacuation of the White House and Capitol. The major oversight amid the frenzy over the approaching aircraft was that federal officials failed to notify Washington, D.C., city officials about the situation immediately. Instead, according to Mayor Anthony Williams, city officials weren't told about the threat until the all-clear was sounded - as the plane that was the center of the alert was being escorted to an airport in Frederick, Md.

That undermines the upbeat assessments of the response voiced by former Homeland Security director Tom Ridge and current Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

Roehrkasse said "security measures were effectively executed," and Ridge said the response was "a successful intervention by the Department of Homeland Security, by the Department of Defense."

However, their exuberance must not shroud the fact that while the rush to protect federal officials and offices was worthy of high marks, it was unconscionable that no one apparently had the direct responsibility to alert city officials that a potentially serious danger was zeroing in on the nation's capital city.

Fortunately for the two men who caused the scare, they did the right thing when confronted by the helicopter and planes sent to assess the situation, turning away from their "straight-in shot toward the center of the Washington area." Had they not done so, the F-16 fighters, which fired four warning flares at the plane, would have been justified in shooting down the aircraft.

Officials who described the response to the plane as a "mostly successful terror alert test" were correct in their critique of what occurred. But facing a real threat, with the national government as the target, there would be no room for a "mostly successful" protection operation. The response would have to be virtually flawless; there would be little or no margin for error.

In the days ahead, government officials will be dissecting the incident from all-available perspectives - as they should. Meanwhile, the incident should serve notice to all pilots with no ill intentions that the nation's homeland security efforts are dead serious, even if some rough edges in those efforts still exist.