Saturday, June 12, 2010

Most Transparent Administration Ever Closes Air Traffic Over Gulf Spill and Coastal Area to, uhm, Secure Safety of Cleanup Workers?

See updates, below

Late Wednesday night, the FAA created a "no-fly zone" over a large area in the Gulf in order to, uhm, secure the safety of cleanup workers or something.

No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM (except as described).

Pursuant to 14 CFR section 91.137(a)(1) temporary flight restrictions are in effect for deepwater horizon/mississippi canyon (mc252) incident cleanup and reconstitution operations an area bounded by: 290500n/0904000w or the leeville /lev/ vortac 258 degree radial at 30.1 NM to 300000n/0890000w or the gulfport /gpt/ vortac 169 degree radial at 24.7 NM to 300000n/0870000w or the crestview /cew/ vortac 196 degree radial at 52.2 NM to 280000n/0870000w or the panama city /pfn/ vortac 208 degree radial at 149.6 NM to 280000n/0904000w or the leeville /lev/ vortac 201 degree radial at 76.3 NM to the point of beginning at and below 3000 feet AGL excluding the airspace outside of 12 nautical miles from the us coastline. This area is also depicted on U.S. Gulf coast VFR aeronautical chart id helgc as an area bounded from south pelto 2/sp02 then to south pass 6/sp06 then to chandler 39/ch39 then to pensacola 984/pe984 then to desoto canyon 635/dc635 to south timbalair 242/st242 and then back to original point.


All aircraft operations are prohibited except those flights authorized by ATC, routine flights supporting offshore oil operations; federal, state, local and military flight operations supporting oil spill recovery and reconstitution efforts; and air medical and law enforcement operations.

While there might be low-level aircraft in the area (say, operating at 2,500 feet or lower) spraying dispersal agents, it would seem quite odd to ban all flights over the Gulf coastal region -- especially for news agencies trying to document the extent of the spill.

Except if the administration were trying to prevent news agencies from documenting the extent of the spill. And, thus, the extent of their incompetence.

What is the administration hiding?


Update: In the comments, GulfCoastBamaFan observes that the GIS (Geographical Information System) data related to the spill is now unavailable:

They also have a gag order on the GIS data for this incident, in direct contradition with NIMS protocol. Here's a letter from the GIS Institute's founder and the guy that set up the GIS servers and systems.

I've been trying in vain for weeks to get up-to-date data after either BP or the Joint Incident Command center in Houma, LA put all the GIS servers behind a firewall. Those data are supposed to be public record, and they will be critical in documenting response efforts.

All I want to do is post an updated map of the slick on my blog's Deepwater Horizon Timeline, using my own GIS application. But I can't get the slick data.

The level of mismanagement, the attempts to deceive, the quarantining of important data, the incompetence is as colossal as the incident itself.

GulfCoastBamaFan later pointed out that the GIS Institute took that letter down. I saved a copy and Google's cache still has a version available.


Related: Obama's Katrina: an Illustrated Timeline.


Hat tip: Pat. Linked by: Gateway Pundit and Jawa Report. Thanks!

14 comments:

  1. They also have a gag order on the GIS data for this incident, in direct contradition with NIMS protocol. Here's a letter from the GIS Institute's founder and the guy that set up the GIS servers and systems.

    I've been trying in vain for weeks to get up-to-date data after either BP or the Joint Incident Command center in Houma, LA put all the GIS servers behind a firewall. Those data are supposed to be public record, and they will be critical in documenting response efforts.

    All I want to do is post an updated map of the slick on my blog's Deepwater Horizon Timeline, using my own GIS application. But I can't get the slick data.

    The level of mismanagement, the attempts to deceive, the quarantining of important data, the incompetence is as colossal as the incident itself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The GIS Institute took their letter down, for some reason.

    Here's the cached version from Google.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous1:04 PM

    This guy's a real fascist, isn't he?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bastard Fascists.

    ReplyDelete
  5. vermindust9:12 PM

    BP paid a lot of money for this kind of cover. At least Obama, once bought, stays bought. Also Rahm Emanual is staying rent-free in a DC luxury apartment owned by BP, so i would consider this a good investment. I don't know why people are selling BP short, they are obviously too protected to fail.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beg pardon? The notice doesn't close air traffic -- it says that air traffic below 3,000 feet has to get clearance from a controller. This restriction doesn't surprise me, given that it's in an area in which there are probably lots of low-level flights going on.

    If they were serious about keeping people out, why such a low altitude floor?

    ReplyDelete
  7. You people are DISGUSTING for using this disaster to try and score political points.

    Simply subhuman garbage.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8:02 AM

    Political points or maybe Hillary was right, all he had was a speech.

    “We need to bring every skimmer possible and have them steam towards the Gulf of Mexico,” says LeMieux. “We need all the help we can get.” …

    “What we have to really focus on is not just our beaches, but our inland waterways,” says LeMieux. …

    “Oil got into Pensacola Bay and the county commissioners didn’t hear about it from the Coast Guard – they heard about it from residents who picked up their cell phones.” Senator LeMieux says Unified Command in Mobile should reassign some of its decision making authority now that oil is threatening the Sunshine State.

    http://www.panhandleparade.com/index.php/mbb/article/senator_lemieux_oil_leaks_most_serious_threat_is_rising_to_the_surface/mbb7724005/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:34 AM

    Good luck sharing about this - I tried posting the google cache link and Facebook told me that "This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy." If I'm told why, I'll follow up.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous8:38 AM

    FEMA?
    HOMELAND?
    GREENPEACE?
    PETA?
    Landrieu?

    Whole lot of silence right now......

    ReplyDelete
  11. @DINO -- BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH... *can't breathe*
    AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHA... *choke*...

    Bush...

    *gasp*

    Katrina...

    HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAH

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965#

    ReplyDelete
  12. @DINO:

    It is not scoring "political points" to identify the magnitude of incompetence demonstrated by this regime. No, that is merely demonstrating a matter of fact.

    I will point out that Mr. Bush was skewered and grilled alive for not responding to Katrina within 72 hours, while this regime waited NINE DAYS to declare the Deepwater Horizon spill a "spill of national significance" and ELEVEN DAYS to name an Incident Commander.

    Doug: Thanks for the linkage. Reciprocated on the Timeline Page footer (blooger is not letting me do backlinks).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8:29 PM

    http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593/648967

    THIS is why there are no flyovers. It's because the leak is not within the well, it is beneath the sea floor. Obama, BP and Halliburton all knew it 72 hours after the spill.

    Looks legit.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8:33 PM

    RE: post above relating to http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593/648967

    It'll be cached soon. I made copies. complete with links, etc.

    The leak is beneath the sea floor and they can't get to it. And, they've known this all along.

    Meanwhile, check out Politico's article on the interview they did with BHO today where he clearly states that this disaster will change American's psyche forever.

    No doubt, Hussein. No doubt.

    ReplyDelete