FAA Briefly Shuts Down Airspace Over Lake Michigan for ‘Department of Defense Activities’

Steam rises from Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, on Jan. 25, 2019. Carrie Antlfinger/AP Photo

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) restricted airspace over a portion of Lake Michigan on Sunday to “support Department of Defense activities” that temporarily closed down the area for commercial and civilian air traffic, which was lifted a short while later.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed later that both it and the FAA “implemented a temporary flight restriction airspace over Lake Michigan at approximately 12 p.m. EST on Feb. 12, 2023.” That was done “to ensure the safety of air traffic in the area during NORAD operations,” it said, noting that the restriction has since been lifted.

“The FAA briefly closed some airspace over Lake Michigan to support Department of Defense activities,” an FAA spokesperson told The Epoch Times on Sunday, without elaborating further. “The airspace has been reopened.”

The FAA notice, which banned civilian air traffic from the area, was done for national defense reasons, according to a map monitoring FAA notices, the AFP news agency, Reuters, and Fox News. As of Sunday at around 1:15 p.m. ET, the FAA flight restriction appeared to have been lifted, according to the map.

There were no public comments from the Department of Defense as of Sunday afternoon.

The FAA has provided few details about why it set up the flight restriction, which encompassed a square area that encompassed a portion of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the northwestern part of the Lower Peninsula, and parts of Wisconsin.

“Pilots who do not adhere to the following [procedure] may be intercepted, detained and interview by law enforcement or security personnel,” the FAA also said Sunday about the Lake Michigan restriction, adding that pilots who enter could face deadly force, according to Fox News.

A number of large U.S. cities are located along Lake Michigan, including Chicago; Milwaukee; Gary, Indiana; and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The closure of the airspace follows the shootdown by U.S. aircraft of a Chinese spy balloon and two unidentified flying objects. The two unidentified objects were taken down over Alaska and northern Canada on Friday and Saturday, while officials have provided few details about them.

Canadian investigators are hunting for the wreckage of the mysterious flying object shot down by a U.S. fighter jet over Yukon territory, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), citing White House adviser Jake Sullivan, said that officials believe both objects were also balloons, albeit smaller than the one shot down near the South Carolina coast a week ago.

Also Saturday, the FAA and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) restricted a portion of Montana’s airspace after a “radar anomaly” was discovered. A U.S. military aircraft did not identify any object to correlate to what was spotted on radar, NORAD said.

However, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) on Sunday wrote that it may not have been simply a radar issue.

“I am in constant communication with NORCOM and they have just advised me that they have confidence there IS an object and it WAS NOT an anomaly. I am waiting now to receive visual confirmation. Our nation’s security is my priority,” Rosendale wrote on Twitter Sunday afternoon. He did not provide additional details.

Other than Rosendale, other lawmakers have expressed alarm over the recent activity near or within U.S. airspace in recent days.

“We don’t really have adequate radar system, and we certainly don’t have an integrated missile defense system. We’re going to have to begin to look at the United States airspace as one that we need to defend,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the House Intelligence panel’s chair, told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “This shows some of the problems and gaps that we have.”

Turner said he has not yet been briefed on the latest developments, saying that “there needs to be more engagement within the administration and Congress.”

Meanwhile, in a routine move, the FAA and NORAD set up a restricted airspace zone over Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona, for Sunday’s Super Bowl game.

Reuters contributed to this report.