Three civilian aircraft breach airspace over Trump's Florida resort, F-16s scrambled: Report

Donald Trump

Three civilian aircraft reportedly violated the airspace above US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, forcing the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to scramble F-16 fighter jets.

According to a Daily Mail report, the F-16 fighter jets deployed flares, and the three civilian planes were escorted out of the area.The airspace breaches occurred at 11:05 a.m., 12:10 p.m., and 12:50 p.m. It was unclear why the three planes flew into Palm Beach airspace, as such incidents have frequently occurred in recent weeks, the report added.

Two violations occurred on February 15 and one on Presidents Day, February 17. There were reports of F-16 fighter jets responding to airspace violations over Wellington, a more inland community. The NORAD had also reported another civilian aircraft flying into Palm Beach 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.”

In another development, Trump said that boxes of classified documents that the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago home during an investigation into possible misconduct in 2022 have been returned to him, and that he would one day display them in his presidential library.

According to AFP, Trump said that the boxes, which contained “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 returned by the Justice Department, now led by his own appointees.