F-15s scramble to intercept unresponsive aircraft over restricted airspace over West Palm Beach

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F-15s scramble to intercept unresponsive aircraft over restricted airspace over West Palm Beach

My take:This is going to be the first of many incidents.

Two F-15s caused a ‘sonic boom’ as they raced from their base in Homestead, Fla., Friday to intercept an unresponsive general aviation aircraft that flew near Palm Beach during a stay by President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

The jets flew at supersonic speeds and residents were startled by the loud boom, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, said in a statement. The two fighters were able to establish communication with the aircraft. This incident occured at about 7 p.m. ET. No further details were immediately available.

"The intent of military intercepts is to have the identified aircraft re-establish communications with local FAA air traffic controllers and instruct the pilot to follow air traffic controllers' instructions to land safely for follow-on action," the statement read.
 
The Secret Service is gonna be hoppin, too. May need to hire more SAs to run down all the threats.
 
I don't think it is targeted behavior. Busting a Presidential TFR is a fucking big deal, but they do pop up quickly sometimes. Some pothead pilot making his way to Key West for the weekend is prolly who busted it. The airspace down that way is complex, and most people fly VFR along the intercoastal freeway thing. Somebody probably didn't file a flight plan and was off on his own. When I flew down there in October Miami center basically told me to fuck off when I asked for flight following, so I can see it being a thing that happens while he is down that way...
 
I don't think it is targeted behavior. Busting a Presidential TFR is a fucking big deal, but they do pop up quickly sometimes. Some pothead pilot making his way to Key West for the weekend is prolly who busted it. The airspace down that way is complex, and most people fly VFR along the intercoastal freeway thing. Somebody probably didn't file a flight plan and was off on his own. When I flew down there in October Miami center basically told me to fuck off when I asked for flight following, so I can see it being a thing that happens while he is down that way...
Which is why I said this was going to be a common event.
Maybe it'll force some people to be more competent.
 
I was at Camp David for a couple of years, and this is more common than you would think. The reason in the news the next day was usually poor communication or not expecting a no fly zone.
 
I don't think it is targeted behavior. Busting a Presidential TFR is a fucking big deal, but they do pop up quickly sometimes. Some pothead pilot making his way to Key West for the weekend is prolly who busted it. The airspace down that way is complex, and most people fly VFR along the intercoastal freeway thing. Somebody probably didn't file a flight plan and was off on his own. When I flew down there in October Miami center basically told me to fuck off when I asked for flight following, so I can see it being a thing that happens while he is down that way...

Not surprising. Anchorage center would follow us when able, but we were on our own for many of the flights out to the mine. They were at least nice about it, as they'd have heavy commercial IFR traffic and just let us know that hey, they're too busy to be able to throw us into the mix.
 
Not surprising. Anchorage center would follow us when able, but we were on our own for many of the flights out to the mine. They were at least nice about it, as they'd have heavy commercial IFR traffic and just let us know that hey, they're too busy to be able to throw us into the mix.

Is Anchorage a class B? I know that almost all Class C's will give flight following automatically if you take off from there. That is what I was used to. I didn't even call Miami on my way south, but in the way back north I saw some nasty storms and thought,"wtfn?" I ended up skirting around and under the Bravo in Miami.
 
Is Anchorage a class B? I know that almost all Class C's will give flight following automatically if you take off from there. That is what I was used to. I didn't even call Miami on my way south, but in the way back north I saw some nasty storms and thought,"wtfn?" I ended up skirting around and under the Bravo in Miami.
Class C. Anchorage center let alone tower, is always busy. 3 runways with something coming or going at minimum intervals for wake, plus floatplanes on lake hood, plus the gravel strip across the street, plus Merrill field, plus all the airstrips in the area... Then comed in JBER, with thr air force base portion plus army airfield.
 
Happens all the time, even with people that should know better. Remember, TFRs follow the President no matter where he goes or how he travels.

There are still cowboys out there flying local without radios in controlled airspace. I guarantee many of them have no idea where to go to even find a NOTAM, let alone take the time to actually read one.
 
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