Media Flight Have Been Sharply Curtailed Over Oil Spill Area

Journalists trying to get a story about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have found themselves regularly and seemingly pointedly banned from the airspace over the spill area by BP, local, and Coast Guard officials citing air safety concerns.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill TFR

In a recent incident, a seaplane charter company which had contacted a command center for permission to transit the TRF was sharply told "permission denied" as soon as the BP contractor heard there would be media on board. A New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer was hoping to get pictures of the broadening oil slick.

The New York Times reports that the company was questioned extensively about who would be on the aircraft, and who they work for. The owners of Southern Seaplane said that as soon as they mentioned media, they were told "not allowed."

The TRF published recently by the FAA does specify that anyone requesting permission to transit the restricted airspace "should be prepared to provide precise details of their requested flight including: pilots name and contact information, company/organization, purpose of flight, type aircraft, callsign, ingress/egress points and times, requested altitude and route of flight. Pilots will then be provided with additional instructions for obtaining final approval and beacon code assignment."

Government and BP officials have said that the cases where media flights have been denied access were coincidental, and that they have gone to "great lengths" to accommodate media representatives covering the spill ... which number in the hundreds. The FAA has reportedly revised its flight restrictions specifically in response to the incident with Southern Seaplane, but media flights are still being reviewed on a "case by case basis."

A BP spokesman said the restrictions are to protect the safety of both the media and those working on oil spill response and mitigation. FAA spokesperson Laura Brown said that Southern Seaplane was denied permission to fly because the FAA and Coast Guard were enforcing an "essential flights only" policy at the time. She said the only reason a BP contractor answered the phone was because the FAA operations center is located in a BP building.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.uscg.mil