The US president and his wife were evacuated because the private plane “wrongly” entered the restricted airspace

US President Joe Biden – Photo: AP

The White House said there was no threat to the US president’s family in the incident. After assessing the situation, President Biden and his wife returned to their home near the beach in Rehoboth Beach.

The Secret Service (USSS) said the plane was immediately escorted out of restricted airspace after “going the wrong way”.

The USSS said it would question the pilot. According to preliminary investigation, this person did not turn on the appropriate radio channel and did not follow published flight instructions.

As is standard practice for the president’s trips outside of Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration announced the flight restrictions earlier this week ahead of President Biden’s return to his home state of Delaware.

Restrictions include establishing a no-fly zone with a radius of 16km along with a restricted radius of 48km.

Federal regulations require pilots to check for restrictions along their route before takeoff. However, random airspace violations are still common, especially around temporary restricted areas.

Military aircraft and helicopters of the US Coast Guard are commonly used to intercept any aircraft that violate the flight restrictions around the president’s location.

The intercepted planes were diverted to a nearby airport. Law enforcement interrogates the crew here, and they could face criminal or civil penalties.