Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets were scrambled over President Donald Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, twice last weekend to intercept civilian aircraft, a growing trend since he began his second term.
On Saturday and Sunday, fighter jets from North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, were authorized to intercept civilian aircraft flying near Mar-a-Lago — the resort near the West Palm Beach golf course that has been Trump’s primary residence for several years — that were violating a temporary flight restriction, or TFR, over the area put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA.
The president was at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach during both incidents, according to press pool reports. Flights are often restricted around any area where the president is present.
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NORAD said in a news release that, since the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, the command has “responded to over 20 tracks of interest entering the Palm Beach, Florida” temporary flight restriction area.
“Adherence to TFR procedures is essential to ensure flight safety, national security and the security of the president,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, NORAD commander, said in a statement.
“The procedures are not optional, and the excessive number of recent TFR violations indicates many civil aviators are not reading Notice to Airmen, or NOTAMs, before each flight as required by the FAA, and has resulted in multiple responses by NORAD fighter aircraft to guide offending aircraft out of the TFR.”
There were five intercepts between from March 1 to March 9 alone, according to NORAD news releases. One civilian aircraft was intercepted and escorted out of the flight area Sunday, but the F-16s had to deploy flares to get the pilot’s attention.
“The flares were used to draw attention from or communicate with the pilot,” the NORAD release detailed. “Flares are employed with the highest regard for safety, burn out quickly and completely, and pose no danger to people on the ground.”
Another civilian aircraft had been escorted out of the flight area a day earlier. And on March 1, three other aircraft violated the temporary flight restriction; NORAD aircraft deployed flares during two of those intercepts.
An aviation expert told Military.com those numbers signal an alarming trend.
Retired Col. J.F. Joseph, a Marine Corps pilot who is now an aviation consultant and expert witness, told Military.com in an interview Monday that news of the spike in intercepts over the temporary flight restrictions is “unusual” and added that pilots are often made aware of the airspace changes with plenty of time to respond.
“As of the last week or two, it’s become somewhat vogue that these occurrences are happening with this frequency,” Joseph said.
Violations of temporary flight restrictions can range from warnings to hefty fines, suspensions or revocations of pilot certification and, in some severe cases, even jail time. Joseph added that “even student pilots” are usually aware of temporary flight restrictions and know the ramifications of violating them.
Early during Trump’s first term, in February 2017, two NORAD F-15 Eagles were scrambled and had to take off at “supersonic speeds” to intercept an unresponsive aircraft near Mar-a-Lago, CBS reported at the time, causing noise complaints and concerns from nearby residents.
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