F-16 fighter jet intercepted airplane in restricted airspace over OC during Biden speech

[quaint]

OCRegister

A single-engine Cessna airplane was intercepted by an F-16 fighter jet with the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s continental U.S. region after entering restricted airspace over Orange County while President Joe Biden gave a speech at Irvine Valley College last week, authorities said.

NORAD pilots became aware of the airplane as it flew above the Santa Ana area about 3:10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, NORAD officials said in a news release. Biden was speaking about 12 miles away.

The pilots attempted to contact the pilot by radio and when there was no response, they “dispensed flares to gain the attention of the general aviation aircraft, which is standard procedure used to communicate with pilots,” NORAD officials said.

Flight mapping on FlightAware showed the Cessna pilot took off from Kingman, Ariz. The pilot was in the restricted airspace about four minutes before turning around and landing in Chino at shortly before 3:30 p.m.