New Delhi: Three civilian planes allegedly breached the airspace above US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, prompting the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to deploy F-16 fighter jets.
The F-16 fighter jets deployed flares, and the three civilian planes were escorted out of the area, a Daily Mail report said. The airspace violations took place at 11:05 am, 12:10 pm, and 12:50 pm, the report pointed out. The reason behind the three aircraft entering Palm Beach airspace is still not clear, as similar incidents have occurred frequently in recent weeks.
A local website Palm Beach Post said that three airspace breaches occurred over the city during Trump’s visit to Mar-a-Lago that month. Two violations took place on February 15 and one on Presidents Day on February 17.
There were reports of F-16 fighter jets responding to airspace breaches over Wellington, a community located further inland. NORAD also reported another civilian plane entering Palm Beach airspace on February 18. The fighter jets used flares, that are “employed with the highest regard for safety, burn out quickly and completely, and pose no danger to people on the ground”. Trump arrived at his resort after F-16 jets guided the aircraft out of the airspace, a report by the Irish Star said.
Boxes of classified papers returned to Trump
In a separate development, Donald Trump stated that the boxes of classified documents seized by the FBI from his Mar-a-Lago home during a 2022 probe into potential misconduct have been returned to him. He also pointed out that he planned to display them in his presidential library one day.
Trump revealed that the boxes, which had “top secret documents” that he had faced charges of improperly taking with him when he left the White House after his first term, had been given back to him by the Justice Department, which is now headed by his own appointees, an AFP report said.
The Justice Department “just returned the boxes that Deranged Jack Smith made such a big deal about”, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to the special counsel who oversaw the case involving the documents. He added that the papers were being brought to Florida and will one day “be part of the Trump Presidential Library”.
