I am curious if the city of Chicago has restricted air space around the Sears Tower to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
If so, have they called up the National Guard or one of the major military branches to secure the area?
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All airspace over the continental US is now “restricted” in the sense that air travel is possible only under new, stringent rules that didn’t exist on 9/10/01. This has the effect of limiting the total number of aircraft in the air (not just commercial traffic).
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There are, in addition to #1, further restrictions in an area centered on Meigs Field (the downtown lakefront airport) that encompasses the downtown area with skyscrapers.
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This is not, however, a no-fly zone - pilots wishing to fly in or near downtown are to contact Meigs tower for more information on what is and isn’t allowed and how to fly through the area without attracting F-16s
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I haven’t seen national guardsmen in downtown Chicago, but then I’m some distance from the Sears Tower, so they might have some there.
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Having soldiers based on the ground is not going to stop an airplane from crashing into the building above.
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Since the next time someone(s) try to hijack a plane the passengers are apt to get medieval on their ass, most likely we won’t be seeing anymore planes crashing into buildings in the near future. There are, however, other ways to create mayhem.
So you’re going to lay down your life based on the premise that the hijackers want to crash into a building, rather than, say, get some cash or have some prisoner released? If one of the lessons that should be taken from this event is that passengers should attack their hijackers, I for one will be ignoring it!
As for your reply to the OP, in what way are the new regulations more stringent? Does the limit in the number of planes allowed in the skies have restriction of trade implications? How has the new ‘smaller’ airspace been divided between the major airlines?
If only I was an air traffic controller…
Relax, Andy,I think Broomstick is merely making an observation on tactics. Most security experts agree that, since there is so much attention on airplanes right now, terrorists will change their focus to another avenue of attack. Terrorists may be nuts, but, as has been seen in the last week, they are fantastic planners.
Don’t know anything official about airspace rules in Chi. But a little info from my observations:
Meigs field is on the lakefront about 1 mile SE of Sears Tower (I’m looking at it out my window right now.) Planes approach and leave from N or S, over the lake parallel to the lakeshore, not over the loop.
O’Hare is several miles NW of downtown. Commercial air travel E&W to and from O’Hare generally travels several miles N of downtown, somewhere between Wrigley field and Evanston. Alternative is for planes to fly straight S out of O’Hare, and then turn E passing to the S of downtown.
It is common to see helicopters flying over the buildings downtown. Some are for news, but I don’t know what all the rest of them are for.
As far as the Nat’l Guard is concerned, none present. But there are two cops at every intersection downtown, and they all seem to be wearing their vests.
I work 1/2 block NE of Sears Tower. They evacuated our bldg last Tues.
Sears Tower is a really neatly constructed bldg. It is basically a square tube made up of 9 smaller square tubes arranged in a 3X3 grid. The step-backs are where various tubes stop. (Hope that makes sense.) I understand this makes it very strong.
There are different entrances for the office space vs the public areas. And security, while not oppressive, has long been pretty tight. Say you are waiting around in the lobby for someone to come down, do not be surprised if a security guard comes up and asks if they can help you.
Wear a funny hat or something so that Broomstick, tsunamisurfer and I (and every other person I’ve talked with about this) will know to keep you out of the way as we start beating on the hijacker from all sides.
I’ll be at the back, tugging away on my duty free with a ‘wake for meals’ badge on.