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NORAD NEWS
News | May 19, 2012

NORAD intercepts two aircraft near Camp David

By NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. - Military aircraft under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted two Cessna 172 general aviation aircraft in the vicinity of Camp David, Md., May 18.

Both civilian aircraft were out of radio communication. The first was intercepted by a NORAD F-15 Eagle at approximately 7:03 p.m. EDT, and departed the Temporary Flight Restricted area and landed at York Airport, PA. The second Cessna was intercepted by an F-15 and a HH 60 Black Hawk at approximately 7:17 p.m. EDT, and departed the TFR and landed on a grass runway in Penn. Law enforcement is interviewing both pilots.

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.