The Secret Service of the Skies

[brooklynite]

The New York Times:

When you think of security around the president of the United States, you most likely think of Secret Service officers in sunglasses, talking into microphones hidden in their cuffs. You probably don’t think of the large bubble of restricted airspace that follows the president wherever he goes. These are essentially no-fly zones reaching up to 17,999 feet within a 30-nautical-mile radius of the president (a nautical mile is just over a regular mile). If you fly into that ring without permission from federal authorities, fighter jets will be on your wing before you can hum a few bars of “Hail to the Chief.”

This policy, in place since the Sept. 11 attacks, is causing more disruption than usual because President Trump has homes in some of the busiest airspace for general aviation in the country — metropolitan New York and South Florida. The first lady still lives in New York, and President Trump is scheduled to spend his third weekend in a row at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, which he and his aides have taken to calling his “Winter White House.”

...snip...

With a few exceptions, like for law enforcement and medical emergencies, aircraft are now prohibited within a one-nautical-mile radius of Trump Tower in New York. That ring is expected to expand to a 10-nautical-mile radius — covering almost all of Manhattan — when the president is in town. Flights to and from airports within 20 to 30 nautical miles may continue, but only if the pilots file a fight plan, transmit a discrete radio signal (known as a transponder code) and remain in constant communication with air traffic controllers. If President Trump visits New York frequently or on short notice, “the economic impact of these restrictions would be tremendous,” said Rune Duke, the director of government affairs at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

The pain is already being felt by those used to flying around Mar-a-Lago. The region has a robust general aviation community, in part because of the pleasant weather. It has become a hub of flight training at a time when there is a worldwide pilot shortage. According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the six South Florida airports affected by the presidential airspace restrictions “account for a local economic output exceeding $1 billion, create over 8,000 jobs and have a total payroll of $290 million.”

[MFM008]

1. Tell that to a bolt of lightening

or a severe storm.
That plane is not invulnerable.

[murielm99]

2. And the protesters, all over the world,

are helping the economy in the cities where they show up. And not because they are being paid!

Those those thousands of people have to buy things.

[Sherman A1]

3. AF1

Has always had special treatment, which I imagine expanded after Sept of 2001. This is nothing really new.