A military fighter jet was scrambled to Joe Biden’s private Delaware home on Sunday and almost shot down the plane of an inattentive pilot from New York. The warning shot got his attention before things got out of hand. That’s what happens to civilian aircraft which fly over Greenville while His Wisdom is in residence.
Military intervention for Biden
Whether he’s legitimately occupying the Imperial Palace or not, the military is making sure Joe Biden has all the protection he needs, even if it means blasting small aircraft out of the sky. The civilian pilot of a Grumman AA-5 Tiger learned that lesson in a way that he will never forget.
When something like an F-16 comes screaming straight at you and fires rockets, it can make a person nervous, even if they’re only flares. Martin Zauner took the hint and turned away before they decided to switch to real missiles.
The New York pilot wasn’t totally clueless. He knew that the airspace was restricted by the military but insists that he “did not realize that I was getting in it. There was no intention or anything. It was just a mistake.” A big one. He found out how huge after he landed.
It has been well established that the FAA says any pilot who violates restricted airspace has demonstrated “a substantial disregard for safety and security, warranting a 150- to 240-day suspension or revocation of pilot certificates,” Kathy Yodice, an AOPA attorney relates.
The incident happened about 1:00 p.m. on the afternoon of May 16, 2021 that’s when the Grumman AA-5 Tiger violated Biden’s privacy. The military aircraft, attached to the U.S. Secret Service, “fired flares at the aircraft.”
Then, they did the equivalent of a traffic pull-over and forced Zauner to land, redirecting him “to New Garden Airport in Pennsylvania.” They had an ear scorching reception for him on the ground.
Standard procedure
What happened may seem exciting to the public but it’s all in a day’s work to the Secret Service. They train for this sort of thing all the time. One of their spokesunits relates, “per standard protocol, the aircraft was intercepted, and the pilot redirected to a local airport.”
Local photographer Amy Dragoo was able to catch a few good shots of of both the military and civilian aircraft in what almost became a dogfight.
“I heard the jet, and watched it circle northwest of me and head back towards Baltimore. After it launched a round of flares, I thought it must have some connection with the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.” The military is always flying around and doing things like that. Then it suddenly dawned on her why there might be such a commotion. Right about then, the light came on.
“It was at that point I remembered Biden was in town and I realized we were in a no-fly zone.” The jet “circled back around, and I lost track of the small plane as I tried to grab the jet in focus with the camera. It was the second pass when I captured the flares being fired.”
Any time Joe Biden visits his private home in Greenville, Delaware the military slaps a no-fly zone up and it’s killing local business. The local ABC outlet reports “a local airport says the constant [temporary flight restrictions] are hurting business.”
The “New Garden Airport in Chester County is just inside the NO fly ring, when President Biden goes home to Wilmington. Meaning sales and flight operations at the local airport are down. 85 percent of its business happens on weekends.” Biden isn’t any more welcome in Delaware as his dog is in Washington.
