…As GA Security Incidents Continue

But, as if on cue, a couple of security-related stories involving small aircraft surfaced over the same time period. WABC News reported that a couple of New Jersey State Police helicopters were nearly fired upon after they flew over a nuclear power plant in Lower Alloways Creek Township. The police were conducting a drill, but they didn’t tell the people at the nuke plant. Now, the security personnel at the plant are under scrutiny for not bringing the police helicopter down. And on Sunday, NORAD scrambled a couple of F-16s after at least three pilots reported radio transmissions indicating a hijacking was taking place. Around the same time, the Coast Guard also received reports about aircraft in mechanical trouble, but the N-numbers for the planes didn’t exist. The distress calls were evidently dismissed as a prank and authorities decided to turn the scramble into an exercise. TSA spokesman Lauren Stover told The New York Times the agencies had carried out “a serious response to a non-credible threat.”