Serious security - Air Force says it will shoot Super Bowl TFR violators
No doubt about it, they're serious about security around this Sunday's Super Bowl in Detroit. Some 10,000 security officers will be carefully watching 67,000 spectators at the game. Radiation and explosives detectors will be deployed at all of the approaches to Ford Field.
And the super security includes the air. Both the United States and Canada have issued presidential-sized TFRs encircling the stadium out to 30 nautical miles and up to 18,000 feet. Inside that is a 10-nm no-fly zone that will be patrolled by Air Force fighters.
"We're the last line of defense," Lt. Col. Bill Hargrove told ABC News Wednesday. When Correspondent Pierre Thomas asked if he was prepared to take the order to shoot down a non-responsive civilian aircraft entering the inner ring, he answered, "Absolutely!"
AOPA urges pilots to exercise extreme caution.
The joint U.S.-Canadian TFR prohibits most GA flights within 10 nm of Detroit's Ford Field from 4 p.m. until midnight on February 5. That will shut down Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET), and Windsor Airport (CYQG) across the border in the Canadian province of Ontario, to GA traffic.
However, charter aircraft complying with one of the TSA's approved security programs can still land at DET.
GA flights within 10 to 30 nm of the stadium will be treated just like flights within the Washington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Pilots must file a flight plan, be assigned a discrete transponder code, and remain in radio contact with air traffic control. And no loitering.
For flights into Canadian airspace near Detroit, call NavCanada's flight information center (1-866/541-4104) or visit the Web site.
February 3, 2006
