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A civilian aircraft that violated a temporary flight restriction (TFR) near President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was detected and “escorted out” by military officials on Sunday.
In a statement released on Sunday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said that its F-16 fighter aircraft responded to “a general aviation aircraft” flying above Palm Beach, Florida.
NORAD, which is a U.S. military alliance with Canada, said that the civilian aircraft “violated the TFR at approximately 1:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.”
“The aircraft was [then] safely escorted out of the area by NORAD aircraft,” NORAD said.
“Adherence to TFR procedures is essential to ensure flight safety, national security, and the security of the President,” Guillot added. “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.”
“Should the pilot of an aircraft happen to find itself intercepted by one of fighters or helicopters, they should immediately come up on frequency 121.5 or 243.0 and turn around to reverse course until receiving additional instructions on one of those frequencies.”
Since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, NORAD has responded to “over 20 tracks of interest” entering the TFR area of Palm Beach, the agency said.