Sonic booms rattled the southeast coast of Florida Friday evening as two F-15s were scrambled to intercept an aircraft that violated presidential restricted airspace over West Palm Beach. The fighters had to hit the afterburners to catch up to the unidentified “general aviation aircraft” after taking off from Homestead Air National Guard Base, about 100 miles south of President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort. The aircraft was detected in the TFR and did not respond to radio calls. The F-15s got the pilot’s attention and communication was established.
Although the F-15s are fully armed, their mission is to talk, not shoot. The supersonic dash got the fighters to the intercept before the aircraft got dangerously close to the resort. “The intent of military intercepts is to have the identified aircraft re-establish communications with local FAA air traffic controllers and instruct the pilot to follow air traffic controllers’ instructions to land safely for follow-on action,” NORAD said in a statement. The booms triggered hundreds of calls to 911 from area residents.
