Fighter jets over Chicago. Fighter jets over D.C. Fighter jets over South Carolina.

It seems like NORAD is everywhere these days.

What’s up?

Business as usual, says Mike Kucharek, spokesman for the Colordo Springs-based North American Aerospace Defense Command.

NORAD-dispatched jets routinely patrol cities during drills. What’s new is the notification given to the media and the public.

The notices stem from an April incident in which a backup Air Force One, the planes in which the president is flown, circled low over New York City, triggering evacuations amid fears of a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg fumed that the public wasn’t told of the plane and the F-16 fighters accompanying it, which were on an Air Force photo-op mission. Louis Caldera, former head of the White House Military Office, resigned over the incident.

NORAD now gives locals a heads-up when training drills are being conducted.

“It is the same rigorous schedule NORAD has always maintained,” Kucharek said in an e-mail. “But after the Air Force One photo op incident, we are now required to publicize until further notice all of our live-fly exercises that may get people’s attention.”

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Mark Buehrle throws a perfect game for the White Sox against Tampa Bay on Thursday. Photo by

Jim Prisching