Location

Richland, Washington

Richland, Washington, anchors tense airspace in the Pacific Northwest where an unidentified Beech Baron 58 flies low at night. Proximity to a nuclear reactor spikes the danger as F-15s achieve missile lock on the unresponsive twin-engine plane. Operators track its path from the Situation Room, the city's skies turning routine transit into a heart-pounding false alarm that exposes presidential vulnerabilities and forces snap decisions on rules of engagement.

2 events

2 rich involvements

Detailed Involvements

Events with rich location context

S4E23 · Twenty-Five

Air Alarm Forces a Rules Debate — Bartlet’s Judgment Tested

Richland, Washington is the airspace locus of the Beech Baron; its proximity to population centers turns a navigation error into a potential national security incident.

Atmosphere

Spatially anxious — an ordinary small-city sky becomes a locus of dread.

Functional Role

The aircraft's location that drives interception urgency and engagement timing.

Symbolic Significance

Represents how ordinary places can become flashpoints under national-security pressure.

Access Restrictions

Civilian airspace with restricted zones nearby; controlled by regional ATC.

Nighttime flight path over populated area Proximity to critical infrastructure (nuclear plant)

S4E23 · Twenty-Five

Bartlet's Crisis: Fear, Memory, and the Transfer of Power

Richland, Washington is the geographic area over which the Beech Baron is flying; its mention establishes the concrete, regional locus of the perceived threat and grounds the Situation Room's tactical anxiety.

Atmosphere

Geographic reference that feels distant yet immediately consequential—the locus of technical panic.

Functional Role

Area of airspace where the potential threat is located and which triggers the military intercept.

Nighttime flight path over regional airspace Proximity to populated areas and critical infrastructure

Events at This Location

Everything that happens here

S4E23 · Twenty-Five

Air Alarm Forces a Rules Debate — Bartlet’s Judgment Tested

An unidentified Beech Baron triggers a hair-raising operational scramble that turns an abstract policy split into a live test of presidential command. Nancy argues for immediate diplomacy with Qumar; Admiral …

S4E23 · Twenty-Five

Bartlet's Crisis: Fear, Memory, and the Transfer of Power

In the Situation Room a false-alarm plane scare crystallizes a larger fracture: military counsel demands action while diplomatic caution urges restraint. Overwhelmed, President Bartlet steps aside with Leo and confesses …