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Flight bans unlikely to affect ball games

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 27, 2001

Though the Tampa Bay Devil Rays return to St. Petersburg today for their final home stand of the season, the federal ban on flights near stadiums will have little effect on those games and other weekend sporting events in the area.

The temporary directive from the Federal Aviation Administration bans flights within 3 nautical miles of stadiums or other large public events, unless conducting an authorized landing or takeoff.

But because Tampa Bay has a major airport, the airspace in the metro area already is so restricted by other emergency rules that the stadium ban is likely to have little additional effect. The rules for "Class B airspace," within about 35 nautical miles of major airports, ban nearly every flight except those by instrument-rated pilots.

That grounds banner-towing planes, hobbyist pilots and others who would normally fly over stadiums. Tower controllers at the area's airports can steer other flights around stadiums. Albert Whitted Municipal Airport director Monty Burgess said the no-visual-flight rule has already reduced traffic at the St. Petersburg airport by an estimated 75 percent.

Bayfront Medical Center's Bayflite helicopters "can go anywhere they need to go to pick up patients," hospital spokeswoman Cassandra Morrell said, but will avoid sporting events by 3 miles when possible. "As a general rule we have always avoided arenas, and our pilots are now in constant contact with towers."

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