The air space was closed for a 3mi radius around the ranch, up to an altitude of 3000 feet. That was reliably reported on FR. It was for the express purpose of keeping the media in check; the only media presence was three TV affiliate vans located at the BLM compound, under their direct control.
I didn’t look up the NOTAM but a 3 mile radius atound a spot in the Nevada desert is BS on its face. The ranch is something over 600,000 acres-—that’s upwards of 100 townships which, if rectangular, would be around 40 miles square. The ranch is 80+ miles from Vegas with little in between. That would have been a really expensive day trip for a news bird. Spooking the cows more would have been the result of more aircraft and BLM already did enough of that. If you want to get shot out of the sky “soonest” go ahead and fly your eggbeater over a cowboy’s herd. It seems that card had been played and the humor in it was gone.
“The air space was closed for a 3mi radius around the ranch, up to an altitude of 3000 feet. That was reliably reported on FR. It was for the express purpose of keeping the media in check; the only media presence was three TV affiliate vans located at the BLM compound, under their direct control”
There’s a recent (fiction) book “Home Invasion” by William A. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone set in current times about the US government seizure of an entire border town. This comment above is almost identical to the scenario in the book. Unfortunately, the standoff in the book didn’t go as well for the townspeople if I recall. Here’s a link:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7958883-home-invasion