Say What You Will, But Someone Should Get A Clue And See Why These 'Violations' Keep Happening

Its been a busy couple of days for NORAD as a number of aircraft were scrambled to intercept GA aircraft that ran afoul of various airspace restrictions. This time, Chicago TFRs over a city already well-known for being unfriendly to GA made the airspace even more so as two aircraft were chased away from the area during a massive "VIP" TFR "Supporting The United States Secret Service (USSS) And The Office Of The President Of The United States."

Saturday morning, an F-15 fighter under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted a general aviation aircraft in the vicinity of Chicago, Ill. at approximately 10:30 a.m. CDT. The fighter responded to a temporary flight restriction violation by a small single engine aircraft. After intercepting the aircraft, the F-15 escorted it out of the flight restricted area without further incident at approximately 10:45 a.m. CDT.

Later that day, another F-15 under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command intercepted a general aviation aircraft in the vicinity of Chicago, Ill. at approximately 4:30 p.m. CDT. The fighter responded to a temporary flight restriction violation by a Cessna 172. After intercepting the single engine aircraft, the F-15 escorted it out of the flight restricted area without further incident at approximately 4:45 a.m. CDT. The pilot was directed to contact the FAA for further instructions.

Aero-News Analysis: The Chicago TFR covers a lot of airspace, was announced some 48 hours before its imposition, and its yet again tied to the wanderings of various political officials. It is but one of a significant number of TFR violations leading ANN to wonder why a system that has sown such a propensity for failure isn't replaced by something that is more workable... or whether or not all these massive TFRs are really in the best interests of the nation... depriving flyers of their rights to use the nation's airspace as they require. Getting the TFR mess straightened out would seem to be a great job for one of our aviation associations... but so far they seem more interested in talking about the issue rather than doing something about it. Understand this, however, an inflight intercept is not that simple or safe an undertaking and one of these days someone is going to get hurt (or worse) so that some politician can raise more money for their campaign or get in another round of golf... maybe then, in the resulting investigations, we'll see just how workable and well-thought-out our TFR programs really are.

FMI: www.norad.mil, http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_2_8597.html