Chelsea Clinton Wedding To Close Airspace Over Rhinebeck, NY

by Rachel Sklar | 11:45 pm, July 28th, 2010

» 10 comments

Think you’re important? Oh, really? Have your parties ever caused the FAA to declare the skies above your house a no-fly zone? No? Then you’re clearly not as cool as Chelsea Clinton, who weds this Saturday, July 31st to Mark Mezvinsky (who may or may not be distantly related to Amar’e Stoudemire but not Mel Gibson).

The daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton may not be having the Obamas to her nuptials, but there will be plenty of VIPs in the house. That’s not just according to everyone kvelling over the guest list — that’s according to the FAA, which posted a NOTAM (Notice To Airmen) citing that reason for closing the airspace over Rhinebeck, NY from July 31, 2010 at 1900 UTC to August 01, 2010 at 0730 UTC. What it means: any flights in the zone have to be legit, with their flight plans pre-filed, under positive control (of flight controllers), pre-identified and in a pre-designated place.

First noted by blogger Brian Williams (yes, that Brian Williams, on his NBC “Daily Nightly” blog), the FAA has posted a ‘TFR’ (Temporary Flight Restriction) at latitude: 41º56’42″N, longitude: 73º55’51″W, for a radius of 1.5 nautical mile. After all, as Williams notes, there will be a former President and the current Secretary of State in attendance, and likely “a wedding party understandably anxious to avoid aerial photography.” (This also means that Politics Daily’s Andrew Cohen won’t be able to hire a plane to skywrite his love for Chelsea over the ceremony.)

It should be noted that the last time we wrote about FAA airspace closure for such reasons was back in September, when President Obama spoke at the memorial service for Walter Cronkite. This NOTAM seem a lot more restrictive, though that one was over New York City, where presumably there’s more traffic than over Rhinebeck. But for this TFR, that would probably not be true this weekend, so thank you, FAA, for giving Chelsea & Mark their privacy! Unless Barbra Streisand starts live-tweeting. Dare to dream.

It’s Official: Rhinebeck, New York Is Designated A No-fly Zone [Daily Nightly]
0/4317 NOTAM Details [FAA]

Related:
0/5100 NOTAM Details – flight restrictions over BP Oil Spill [FAA]

Images via Google News and FAA

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http://SailRabbits.com Magister

Could this indicate an Obama appearance?

I never heard anything about the airspace over Taos being closed when Rumsfeld was in town and with Air Force Two clearly parked on the runway at Jackson, the airport appeared fully operational. Former President Reagan was expected at Liz Taylor’s last wedding, but he was unable to attend, Nancy went without him and the paparazzi was allowed to fill the skies over Neverland for the event.

I don’t know and maybe such a collection of appointed and elected dignitaries are treated differently than a lone official or a similar group in the post-9/11 era, but if the airspace is closed, then it could also signal the possibility that an off-guest list person might be expected.
Some_Dude

I figure it’s because the ex-president and current Sec of State will be there.
http://SailRabbits.com Magister

@Some_Dude: Yeah. The airspace does seem to get closed more often than it did, before. I don’t know know if it’s still restricted over the oilspill or not, but I kind of doubt that would’ve happened ten years ago.

But still, with the restricted airspace and the reports of the Secret service sweeping the estate grounds, it’s all just meaningless speculation on a nonsensical subject, but it does seem to pose the question.
http://SailRabbits.com Magister

(I guess this is more of a nonsense subject than nonsensical. I’ve just always liked the word)
murf

What a joke . Who cares ? The prog press love the Clinton’s and the Gore’s’ , no matter what immoral transgressions they commited , similar to the Kennedy’s .

Pathetic , but keep railing on Palin, you creatins
!
intheknow

There are around 50 TFR’s listed at tfr.faa.gov, 7 are VIP TFR’s including one over ex-president Bush’s residence in Dallas, TX (in effect even when Bush isn’t home).

Alex could hire the plane, because the TFR only applies up to 2,000 ft above the event, not that big of a deal and only 1,000 feet higher than the FAA;s general restriction on flying over populated areas. The TFR is also much smaller than the 3 mile no-fly zone (up to 3,000 feet) around any major league baseball game.
DaTruth

Well, this could be an annoyance for the Rhinebeck Aerodrome, where they put on shows with old WW1-style aircraft every weekend.

If someone really wanted to go further in verifying that this is truly the wedding place/time, they could call the Aerodrome and find out if that day’s shows are canceled.

http://www.oldrhinebeck.org/
miki01

Who cares!! The Clintons have been a thorn in NY side since they have arrived. They should go back to Arkansas where they belong!!
Thomas J – Libertarian

This is disgusting. Why is her wedding more important? This is just another example of the political elite screwing Americans.
http://none pyrope

Paranoia runs deep TJL.

I wish Chelsea all the joys that marriage can bring. Who knows, maybe she won’t turn out like her maladjusted parents.