LEBANON, N.H. (WCAX) – There was an emergency landing at the Lebanon Municipal Airport on Tuesday, but it was all just a drill.
Fighter jets forced an unauthorized aircraft to make an emergency landing at the Lebanon Municipal Airport– that was the training exercise on Tuesday.
Lebanon police cruisers drive out onto the tarmac as a single-engine plane circles above.
“The task is to try to get that aircraft on the ground as soon as possible,” Airport Manager Carl Gross said.
What you don’t see are the fighter pilots from the Massachusetts Air National Guard tailing the plane and commanding the pilot to land.
“If someone is violating a temporary flight restriction or is entering the country through the air defense zone without permission,” Gross said.
After the plane lands at the airport, Lebanon officers prepare to take the pilot and passenger into custody. That pilot is actually Cpl. Tim Nelson with the Civil Air Patrol.
“The Massachusetts wing has been doing this since 2009,” Nelson said.
Nelson is instructed by officers to move away from the plane and is detained. The passenger follows and the training exercise is over. The fighter pilots still in the sky scramble back to their base.
“They will launch to try to find us. Once they find us they will try to communicate with us to move us away from a place they don’t want us to be,” Nelson said.
The training is mostly for the intercepting Air Guard pilots, but it’s also for officers on the ground.
“Approaching an aircraft is certainly not something we train for on a regular basis.” Lebanon Police Chief Phil Roberts said.
While Lebanon is a relatively small airport, it would be used for an actual emergency and officers say they need to be prepared.
“Maneuver with the tower and the airport staff. The movements around the airport,” Roberts said.
The Civil Air Patrol will be conducting similar training exercises over the next several weeks, including at airports in Vermont.