“Whats going on here?” The Chillest TFR Intercept You’ll Ever Hear

RV-6 Accidentally Enters Super Bowl TFR — Citation Intercept Guides It Clear

A privately operated Van’s RV-6 unintentionally entered the Temporary Flight Restriction established around the 2016 Super Bowl, prompting a military-style intercept that ended without an accident.

The RV-6 was flying toward Paso Robles when it entered the protected airspace associated with the Super Bowl event. The recorded ATC account says the pilot did not intentionally penetrate the restriction. At the time, several aircraft had violated the same TFR.

A Citation jet was dispatched to intercept the RV-6. The intercept aircraft established contact and escorted the light aircraft out of the restricted area. The important feature of the incident is that the response remained controlled: the RV-6 was identified, intercepted and removed from the protected airspace without a collision or reported injury.

The episode illustrates how a TFR can turn an otherwise routine general-aviation flight into an air-defense problem very quickly. The pilot's mistake did not become a larger emergency because the intercept sequence produced a safe resolution.

Contemporary reporting identified four general-aviation aircraft that entered the outer ring of the Super Bowl restriction. The RV-6 was the aircraft that ultimately landed at Paso Robles; the other reported violators included a Cessna 150, a Cessna 172 and a Beechcraft BE35.

The restricted area extended roughly 10 to 32 miles from Levi's Stadium. NORAD described the four aircraft as private, single-engine airplanes, and the reported response was interception followed by escort or diversion rather than an attack or forced engagement.

The episode also shows why the distinction between an airspace violation and a deliberate intrusion matters. Reports said the pilots had not checked the applicable NOTAM information. The RV-6's safe diversion to Paso Robles ended the immediate security problem without an accident.

“What’s going on here?”

Accident Facts

Sources

• Video source (ATC/audio reconstruction)
• Video/ATC recording