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NORAD NEWS
News | Aug. 17, 2010

NORAD Fighters Scramble for TFR Violation

By NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. - Two F-15 fighters from the 142nd Fighter Wing from the Oregon Air National Guard under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled in response to a Temporary Flight Restriction violation in the vicinity of Seattle, Wash. today at approximately 1:38 p.m. PDT.

The aircraft departed the restricted airspace and was not intercepted by the fighters. A sonic boom that may have been associated with the fighters was reported to have been heard in the Seattle area.

NORAD's mission – in close collaboration with homeland defense, security, and law enforcement partners – is to prevent air attacks against North America, safeguard the sovereign airspaces of the United States and Canada by responding to unknown, unwanted and unauthorized air activity approaching and operating within these airspaces, and provide aerospace and maritime warning for North America. NORAD may be required to monitor, shadow, divert from flight path, direct to land and/or destroy platforms deemed a potential threat to North America.

NORAD is the bi-national Canadian and American command that is responsible for the air defense of North America and maritime warning. The command has three subordinate regional headquarters: the Alaskan NORAD Region at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; the Canadian NORAD Region at Winnipeg, Manitoba; and the Continental NORAD Region at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. The command is poised both tactically and strategically in our nation’s capital to provide a multilayered defense to detect, deter and prevent potential threats flying over the airspace of the United States and Canada.