Secret Service sends McHenry County deputies to private airport near Marengo

The Secret Service asked McHenry County deputies to rush to a private airport near Marengo Sunday afternoon after a small plane flew into airspace restricted for President Donald Trump’s Presidents Cup visit.

Official response and confirmed impact

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office responded around 2:10 p.m.

Sunday to Hilbert Airport, 408 Busse Road in unincorporated Marengo, for an assist-other-agency call.

The Secret Service contacted the Chicago Rockford International Airport and asked that deputies get there immediately, according to sheriff’s radio traffic.

A dispatcher said the Secret Service reported the aircraft had flown into restricted airspace without authorization and described it as a small white civilian plane with a red stripe.

The dispatcher said the Secret Service may want the pilot apprehended and would call the sheriff’s office back with what it wanted done.

Around 1:40 p.m., an air traffic controller had radioed for any aircraft flying at low altitude north of Casa de Aero Park, a private airfield near Hampshire, without a transponder code to make contact, according to air traffic control radio traffic.

A fighter jet pilot had warned an aircraft with a red stripe on its fuselage flying at about 1,000 feet some 30 miles northwest of O’Hare International Airport that it was in restricted airspace around 1:50 p.m., according to emergency radio traffic.