The Nation - News from Nov. 8, 1988

U.S. fighter jets have intercepted Soviet reconnaissance planes three times in the last three weeks, marking what appears to be a seasonal upswing in Soviet activity off the East Coast, officials said. “The trend is that these things go on in the spring and in the fall,” said Capt. Larry Jenkins, a spokesman for the Air Force’s Tactical Air Command Headquarters at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The latest encounter took place Friday, when two Vermont Air National Guard F-16s and two Canadian Air Force CF-18s intercepted four northbound Soviet Bear aircraft as they entered the Canadian Air Defense Identification Zone--a 200- to 300-mile-wide buffer off the North American coast.