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NORAD NEWS
News | Sept. 4, 2012

NORAD fighters intercept small GA aircraft

By NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. - Two F-16 fighters from the Toledo Air National Guard and under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted a small general aviation aircraft that had entered a temporary flight restricted (TFR) area Sept. 3 at approximately 12:30 p.m. MST.

Two small, general aviation aircraft entered the TFR at separate points. The first aircraft landed at Lenawee Airport, Ohio. The second aircraft remained airborne in the TFR and was intercepted. Upon intercepting the aircraft, the F-16s escorted it until it landed without incident at Lenawee Airport. Both planes were met by local law enforcement.

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.