Posted on 06/09/2010 7:43:43 PM PDT by balls
When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request.
A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.
“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”
Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.
To some critics of the response effort by BP and the government, instances of news media being kept at bay are just another example of a broader problem of officials’ filtering what images of the spill the public sees.
Scientists, too, have complained about the trickle of information that has emerged from BP and government sources. ...
Officials at BP and the government entities coordinating the response said instances of denying news media access have been anomalies, and they pointed out that the company and the government have gone to great lengths to accommodate the hundreds of journalists who have traveled to the gulf to cover the story.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Then don’t ask for permission.
I wonder if they will arrest people trying to take photos, or perhaps worse...
First mistake: Asking permission!
Since when is the airspace over the Gulf of Mexico closed to General Aviation...as long as you are not flying over some super-secret Military Installation, etc? File a Flight Plan from New Orleans to some destination, the route to which JUST HAPPENS to take you OVER the location of the oil rig.
You flies over; you takes your photos, and you changes your flight plan to cancel your previous destination and return to base. Besides........any married man knows; it’s much easier to ask forgiveness (if necessary) than it is to ask PERMISSION!
The media will be much easier to control if the FCC gets to distribute or not distribute subsidies to them depending on whether they are properly compliant. < /bitter cynicism>
Is there any doubt that there is a media cover up?
Since when does BP control airspace?
My BS meter pegged.
Belle Chasse is a Navy base, but there is nothing of note on that base.
There is a Temporary Flight Restriction for the area, but it looks like it might only go to 3000 ft agl.
Is there a restriction on General Aviation (GA)? If so, on who’s authority was it issued?
They should just go in without permission. If they get arrested it will be a massive story.
NYT - how about that?
...at and below 3000 feet AGL excluding the airspace outside of 12 nautical miles from the us coastline......
The TFR goes way south of 12 miles. I can't tell if the TFR means outside 12 miles you can't fly at all, or you can. Sometimes the FAA doesn't doesn't use the clearest english when putting these together.
Simple solution. Make one of the home made balloons with a camera attachment tether it along the shore, send it up 90,000 feet you will cover 100s of sqr miles. It is a $200 solution. If the feds shoot it down it is a huge story.
You think the NYT is finally getting it? Probably not....they didn’t ‘get’ that the Nazi’s were killing jews by the millions either...until it was too late.
The article is definately scary to anyone that’s paying attention. This is coming from the top down....from OBAMA!
A very bad moon is rising over this country.
If there is a media cover-up, they are doing a terrible job of it by reporting on airspace restrictions.
NAS always have airspace restrictions.
Bush would have never treated the citizens of the USA like this, thats all I can say.
Welcome to the 0 police state.
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