CAA: GA News, "FAA lifting bans on private flights in metro areas around nation"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, October 12, 2001

FAA lifting bans on private flights in metro areas around nation
By JONATHAN D. SALANT
Associated Press 


WASHINGTON - The Federal Aviation Administration is relaxing recent
restrictions on private planes in 15 metropolitan areas where most
flights had been banned following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In the 15 areas, private pilots will be able to fly under visual flight
rules, where they fly low enough in the sky to navigate by landmarks on
the ground and are responsible for keeping their planes away from other
aircraft. Up to 90 percent of all private plane flights are conducted
under visual flight rules.

In another 13 metropolitan areas, pilots can fly private planes only if
they file flight plans with the FAA and are in contact with air traffic
controllers.

No private plane flights are allowed within 20 miles of Kennedy Airport
in New York and Reagan Washington National Airport. Also still closed
are 17 small airports in the Washington and New York metropolitan areas.

>From Monday to Wednesday, five metropolitan areas each day will be
reopened to private planes flying under visual flight rules:

   -Monday: Houston; Kansas City, Mo.; Memphis, Tenn.; New Orleans; St.
Louis.

   -Tuesday: Cleveland, Dallas, Honolulu, Minneapolis, Phoenix.

   -Wednesday: Charlotte, N.C.; Cincinnati; Salt Lake City; Seattle;
Tampa, Fla.

"This is another step in the FAA's phased program to restore access to
U.S. airspace," FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said Friday. "We expect to
take additional actions to restore flying consistent with national
security."

Pilots must have transponders, which allow air traffic controllers to
track their planes, or receive waivers from the FAA. They must monitor a
specified radio frequency while in the airspace around the metropolitan
areas.

The restrictions affect planes flying within 22.7 miles of the major
airports in each metropolitan area.

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