This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – U.S. fighter jets were again forced to scramble near President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home over the weekend as two violations by civilian pilots took place in what has become a disturbing pattern.
The first occurred at about 8:50 a.m. Saturday as a general aviation aircraft violated the TFR zone, or temporary flight restriction.
F-16 fighter jets intercepted the plane to escort it out of the area.
"NORAD and the FAA work closely together to keep the skies over America safe, with close attention paid to areas with Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR)," said Gen. Gregory Guillot, Commander, NORAD and U.S. Northern Command.
"Adherence to TFR procedures is essential to ensure flight safety, national security, and the security of the President. The procedures are not optional, and the excessive number of recent TFR violations indicates many civil aviators are not reading Notice to Airmen, or NOTAMs, before each flight as required by the FAA, and has resulted in multiple responses by NORAD fighter aircraft to guide offending aircraft out of the TFR. Should the pilot of an aircraft happen to find itself intercepted by one of fighters or helicopters, they should immediately come up on frequency 121.5 or 243.0 and turn around to reverse course until receiving additional instructions on one of those frequencies."
Then on Sunday afternoon at approximately 1:15 p.m., another civilian plane entered the restricted zone, and NORAD F-16s were again dispatched, having to deploy flares to get the pilot's attention before escorting him out.
Guillot says there have been more than 20 similar violations in Palm Beach since Trump was inaugurated Jan. 20.
Last weekend, as WorldNetDaily reported, at least three similar incidents took place in a short period of time, as military jets were forced to intercept and escort aircraft away from the area.
In February, another three violations of airspace took place while President Trump was staying at the so-called "Winter White House" at Mar-a-Lago.
The Palm Beach Post reported: "A spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, confirmed Wednesday that there were three airspace violations of the imposed presidential protected space during Trump's six-day visit to Mar-a-Lago, his mansion in Palm Beach. Two occurred on Feb. 15 and one on Presidents Day, Feb. 17."
