Two private aircraft were intercepted by fighter jets over New Jersey Tuesday morning in separate incidents after violating a temporary flight restriction (TFR) surrounding the President’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
An FAA spokesman said that the two aircraft violated the TFR just before 11 am Tuesday.
NORAD dispatched two US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors to intercept the aircraft when the general aviation aircraft entered the restricted area while out of radio communication.
Both aircraft landed without incident at Central Jersey Regional Airport (47N) in the town of Hillsborough, about 35 miles southwest of New York City.
Details about the intercepted aircraft and their pilots were not immediately known.
Due to the high-profile security concerns surrounding the UN General Assembly, the FAA issues a small TFR for the event every year, essentially a two-mile radius around the United Nations itself. Any visit from the President, however, automatically means a vastly larger, multi-level TFR, with increasing levels of security the closer you get to the middle. As the pilots in today’s incidents now know, entering even the outermost ring without a properly-tuned radio will get you in big trouble.
