The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed on Sunday that fighter jets intercepted “general aviation aircraft” near President Donald Trump’s residence in Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.
In a press release, Continental U.S. NORAD Region officials announced that F-16 fighter jets “responded to a general aviation aircraft over Palm Beach, Florida” after civilian aircraft violated a temporary flight restriction on Sunday.
“The civilian aircraft violated the Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) at approximately 1:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time,” NORAD stated in Sunday’s press release. “The aircraft was safely escorted out of the area by NORAD aircraft.”
In a post accompanying the press release on X, formerly Twitter, NORAD said that F-16 fighter jets were forced to respond to “general aviation aircraft” violating a temporary flight restriction in the Palm Beach region twice in just 48 hours.
Officials indicated in the press release that the NORAD aircraft “dispensed flares” to “draw attention from or communicate with the pilot” of the civilian aircraft during Sunday’s incident. While NORAD said the flares may have been seen by civilians, officials noted that flares “burn out quickly and completely,” present no danger to civilians on the ground, and are used with the “highest regard for safety.”
NORAD Commander Gen. Gregory Guillot explained that the agency “works closely” with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to ensure the safety of the “skies over America” and that “close attention” is “paid to areas with Temporary Flight Restrictions.”
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“Adherence to TFR procedures is essential to ensure flight safety, national security, and the security of the President,” Guillot said. “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.”
Guillot warned that if any pilots are intercepted by a NORAD fighter jet or helicopter, 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.”
According to NORAD officials, the defense agency has responded to more than 20 “tracks of interest” entering Palm Beach’s temporary flight restriction area since Trump’s inauguration in January. In light of the repeated airspace violations, NORAD warned aircrews to “verify all FAA NOTAMs, especially in the NCR and Mar-a-Lago regions.”
