On the afternoon of July 18th, when the Republican National Convention was taking place in Milwaukee, aerospace authorities intercepted two planes for being in the temporally restricted flight zone. According to NORAD, the two incidents occurred between 3 and 5 PM on Thursday.
The United States and Canada collaborate through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to monitor the sky for potential dangers to North America.
The infractions, which followed an earlier intercept on July 16th, were disclosed by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
That particular plane wasn’t communicating with air traffic control when it was detected on Tuesday. It flew 24 miles southwest of Milwaukee.
While the specifics of the plane and pilot’s identity remain unknown, flight tracking data suggests that an aircraft was on its route out of Indiana to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, when NORAD forced a diversion.
Around 3:30 in the afternoon, officials sent out an F-35 jet to intercept the plane. Officials said in a press statement that the jet spotted the two general aviation aircraft and guided them out of the area. The F-35 could be seen as it flew at 4,000 feet.
Both instances involved general aviation aircraft that were successfully escorted out of the region by F-35s when they were approximately twenty-five nautical miles west of Milwaukee, according to NORAD.
The F-35 fighter aircraft could be seen from the ground during Thursday’s intercepts flying at 3,000 feet.
Drones were temporarily banned within a 30-mile perimeter of downtown Milwaukee as part of the temporary flying restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
An FAA statement from Friday, July 12th, warned people not to fly drones.
The FAA designated a large portion of southeastern Wisconsin as a ‘No Drone Zone’ in anticipation of the several temporary flying restrictions that were in place during the Convention, which ran from Monday, July 15th to Thursday, July 18th.
