US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were briefly evacuated to safety in the Rehoboth resort after a private plane mistakenly entered the airspace over the beach house where the couple spends their weekend. week. A preliminary investigation revealed that the pilot was not on the proper radio channel when he entered airspace […]
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were briefly evacuated to safety in the Rehoboth resort after a private plane mistakenly entered the airspace over the beach house where the couple spends their weekend. week.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the pilot was not on the proper radio channel when he entered airspace and did not follow published flight guidelines.
As is standard practice for presidential travel outside of Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration published flight restrictions earlier this week ahead of Biden’s visit to the seaside city.
Restrictions include a 16 km radius no-fly zone contained within a 48 km restricted zone.
Federal regulations require pilots to check flight restrictions along their route before taking off. Still, accidental airspace violations, particularly around temporary restricted zones, are common.
US military jets and Coast Guard helicopters are often used to intercept any planes that violate flight restrictions around the president.
Intercepted planes are diverted to a nearby airfield, where crews are interviewed by police and face possible criminal or civil penalties.
