WASHINGTON — U.S. fighter jets intercepted a civilian aircraft that entered the airspace above a youth sporting event that President Donald Trump was attending in Ohio on Tuesday, launching flares as a warning to the aircraft to leave the no-fly zone.

NORAD, the military command that monitors and patrols U.S. airspace, said that a general aviation aircraft violated temporary flight restrictions — the no-fly zones established around the president and other top officials when they travel — over Geneva, the city in Ohio that was hosting Trump’s Patriot Games, a youth sporting contest.

The aircraft was safely escorted out of the airspace by U.S. fighter jets, NORAD said in a statement.

It was at least the fourth time that an aircraft has violated the no-fly zone around Trump just this week. Three aircraft entered the restricted airspace around Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Sunday. The incursions appeared to be accidental, and NORAD gave a pointed reminder afterward that pilots must regularly check for federal notices of closed airspace.

The incident over Ohio on Tuesday appeared to be more significant. The fighter jets dispatched to intercept the aircraft in restricted space deployed flares — countermeasures intended to confuse and defeat heat-seeking missiles — to draw the pilot’s attention and communicate that they had to leave the airspace.

A similar stretch of incidents occurred earlier at Bedminster. On July 19, NORAD F-16s intercepted three aircraft and deployed flares in two of those encounters to ward them out of restricted airspace over Trump’s golf course.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Chris Cameron/Doug Mills
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