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Press Releases
Press Release | Sept. 19, 2013

NORAD helicopter intercepts general aviation aircraft in Washington, D.C.

A U.S. Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin flying under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted a general aviation aircraft that was out of communications in the Special Flight Rules Area over Washington, D.C. at approximately 11:20 a.m. EDT this morning, Sept. 19, 2013. 

The aircraft was intercepted and escorted out of the 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 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.