WASHINGTON, Dec 30: The skies above New Year’s Eve revelers in New York and some other major US cities will be off-limits to certain aircraft and patrolled by warplanes as part of increased vigilance for terror attacks, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.
Nine days after raising the nation’s terror alert to its second highest level due to heightened fear of attack, the government said temporary flight restrictions, or TFRs, would be in place over Las Vegas, New York City, Washington and downtown Chicago.
“We granted requests for TFRs ... over (some) areas for New Year’s Eve,” department spokeswoman Rachael Sunbarger said.
The temporary flight restrictions, which apply to chartered flights and smaller leisure aircraft, but not to commercial flights, pertain to Las Vegas and New York City specifically during the New Year’s holiday.
New York City’s Times Square and the Strip in Las Vegas are two of the more popular sites for New Year’s Eve celebrations, as hundreds of thousands of people cram into the area to ring in the New Year.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has said the government would beef up security around large gatherings which are viewed as potential terror targets.
Flights over downtown Chicago have been restricted under a “code orange TFR” since Dec. 24, and there have been restrictions over Washington’s airspace in place since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Flight restrictions will also be implemented for most holiday football bowl games, including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on New Year’s Day and the giant parade that precedes it, Sunbarger said.
MILITARY PATROLS: Ridge, who announced on Monday his department had ordered foreign airlines to put armed marshals on selected flights to and from the United States, said military aircraft would also patrol US skies.
“We will have in play ... not only temporary flight restrictions over cities but we will have aviation patrolling the skies and on alert,” Ridge said.
“There’s going to be security in the ground, there’s going to be security in the air,” Ridge told NBC’s “Today” show.—Reuters