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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels October 15, 2004 Stray plane forced down in Ashland By JoNel Aleccia and John Darling A small German-style plane that violated restricted air space during President George W. Bush's Southern Oregon visit was forced from the sky Thursday evening by red flares from two F-16 fighter jets. Renee McCoy, an office assistant at the Ashland airport, said she was alerted by the FAA that F-16 fighter jets were going to escort a plane to the airport and to make sure the pilot "didn't go anywhere." About 15 minutes later, she saw the plane attempting to land. It tried to make a landing, took off again, circled around and was able to land the second time. She said local law enforcement and the secret service surrounded the plane and asked the pilot to get out with his hands up, and quickly handcuffed him. "In a tiny airport like this it was kind of odd to see," McCoy said. "I thought the highlight of my day was seeing Air Force One flying overhead � I don't think there will be anything quite as exciting after this." The aircraft, described as a fixed-wing, single-engine plane decorated with Maltese crosses, a red nose and camouflage paint, touched down at the Ashland airport at about 5:30 p.m. The pilot, Edward S. Zager, 47, of Hayward, Calif., was handcuffed and detained, along with a passenger, by Secret Service and local law enforcement officials. Zager is the registered owner of the 1957 plane, according to federal Civil Aviation Registry records. Zager could face suspension of his pilot's license for entering restricted airspace during a presidential visit, said Oregon State Police Trooper Dewayne Price, who searched the plane. "There's nothing to indicate that he's up to anything," Price said. "He really should have done his homework." Zager said he gained clearance from California officials before taking off en route from Hayward, Calif., to Aurora, near Portland. When he got near Ashland, the small plane was urged to the ground, a witness said. "We heard this fighter jet; it made a lot of noise," said Ashland resident Marc Valens, 55, a private pilot since 1967. "It shot some flares that made these big puffs of smoke. Then after a while, I could see a small, single-engine propeller plane doing a sort of tight circle, coming down, down, down." Nancy Corey, a spokeswoman in the Federal Aviation Administration's Seattle office, confirmed the grounding. Temporary FAA rules restricted most aircraft operations within a 30-nautical-mile radius of Medford from 3 p.m. Thursday to 9 a.m. Friday, according to a government Web site. Strict prohibitions on flight also were enforced in a zone within 10 nautical miles of the Medford airport. All aircraft entering or leaving the restricted zone were required to emit a special assigned radio code before taking off and during the flight. Flight training, aerobatic flight, gliders, parachutes, ultralights, balloons, crop dusting and banner-towing operations were prohibited. Zager's predicament stirred sympathy among fellow pilots. The sight of an F-16 shooting red flares would spook anyone. "It would be very scary," Valens said. Tidings staff writer Bill Choy contributed to this report DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams