Coast Guard to Review Exercise After Potomac Security Scare

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Coast Guard promised a "thorough review" after a training incident Friday along the Potomac River briefly triggered concerns about the security of President Obama on the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The Coast Guard will "take a good, hard look" at how it handled the routine training exercise to determine if the security scare that followed could have been avoided, Vice Adm. John Currier said.

Federal agency emergency operations centers were not aware of or notified about the exercise on the Potomac, and they began implementing response procedures, a federal source said.

Even the police department's Harbor Patrol, which is responsible for patrolling the Potomac, was not notified, law enforcement sources in Washington said.

The patrol has now demanded the Coast Guard notify it in the future before any training exercises on the Potomac, the sources said.

The Coast Guard did not alert other agencies when it conducted the exercise, Currier said.

He said the U.S. Secret Service, which protects the president, was not notified, stressing that the exercise was routine and happens four times a week.

The training incident took place as Obama was traveling across the Memorial Bridge following an event at the Pentagon shortly before 10 a.m. ET. CNN personnel saw what appeared to be a Coast Guard vessel working to prevent a boat from trying to enter a security zone.

Minutes later, there were reports on police scanners that the Coast Guard fired 10 rounds of ammunition.

A Department of Homeland Security representative later said no shots of any kind had been fired.

"Reports in the media were based on overheard radio calls made over a training frequency," the Coast Guard said in its statement.

The Secret Service said Obama was back at the White House by the time reports surfaced of shots being fired.

The Federal Aviation Administration put a "ground halt" on a small number of flights Friday at Reagan National Airport after the security scare, Currier said.

Reagan National is near where the training activity occurred.