A Cessna 182 that violated a presidential TFR in southern California on Thursday morning posed no threat to President Obama, officials said, but the pilot faces prosecution because authorities discovered 40 pounds of marijuana inside the airplane. Two Air Force F-16s scrambled to intercept the Cessna after it strayed into a eight-mile-wide TFR where Marine One was carrying the president. The 182 landed at Long Beach Airport, where the pilot was questioned by Homeland Security and Secret Service investigators. They determined that he intended no harm to the president, and turned him over to local police. Investigators declined to say how close the 182 was to the Marine One helicopter.
The Air Force was notified by air traffic controllers, who had tried to contact the pilot but got no response. The jets were deployed from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County. According to the Los Angeles Times, the airplane was manufactured in 1961, and is registered to a student pilot who lives in southern California. President Obama was on his way to Los Angeles International Airport after attending a fundraising event in Orange County.
