Washington: Fighter jets intercepted two civilian planes in the vicinity of Camp David on Saturday, in separate incidents that both took place while President Barack Obama was there.
In both cases the planes were met by F-15 fighter jets and landed without incident at nearby airports, North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis said.
They marked the third and fourth such incidents in a month, all four of them taking place while Obama was at the Maryland presidential retreat.
The first plane, identified only as a civilian aircraft out of radio communication, was intercepted by a pair of fighter jets at about 12:17 p.m. local time on Saturday, Lewis said.
The second, a Cessna 210, was intercepted at about 6:56 p.m. on Saturday and was met by law enforcement at Carroll County Regional Airport in Maryland. No further details were immediately available.
Last Saturday, a small plane got within six miles of the presidential retreat before it was intercepted by an F-15 fighter jet.
And on June 11, fighter jets scrambled to guide another small plane away from the area without incident.
Camp David has been a presidential weekend and holiday retreat in the nearby Maryland mountains for decades.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 16:27