Air tour operators must stay grounded
The Secret Service rejected a direct plea Thursday from air tour operators in Las Vegas to let them fly out of the Boulder City airport to the Grand Canyon during the 20 hours President Barack Obama will be in town starting at 5:45 p.m. this evening until 1:45 p.m. on Friday.
Sen. Harry Reid's office also contacted the Secret Service and the Federal Aviation Administration after one helicopter company, Heli USA, asked for help, but to no avail.
"Ultimately they have to decide what is the best way to protect the president of the United States," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said of the president's protection service and the FAA.
The helicopter and fixed-wing airplane companies that run tours to the Grand Canyon and over the Strip among other landmarks estimated that they'll lose $500,000 to $750,000 in business because of the 30-mile radius no-fly zone imposed on them by the FAA's airspace restrictions.
Nigel Turner, president of Heli USA, said today he spoke with the Secret Service to appeal for a smaller no-fly zone of 10 to 12 miles as in previous presidential visits both by Obama in May and by then-President George W. Bush that allowed tour operators to fly out of Boulder City and Henderson.
But he said his pleas fell on deaf ears.
"They had this very blase attitude," Turner said. "They don't care because they say this is only for a short period of time, but I don't think they realize the negative impact on our business. All they care about is security, which I understand. It's their job. But they can try and work with us as they did before."
Turner also called the office of Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., seeking help on the matter.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the agency works with the FAA and law enforcement agencies to determine the best way to protect the president and the restrictions would remain in place.
"These aren't arbitrary decisions. Our goal is to have a safe environment for the president," Donovan said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. "We want to have the least impact possible but unfortunately we're sometimes going to cause inconvenience."
Officials usually don't discuss specific security measures or possible threats, although Las Vegas in the past has been cited as a potential terrorism target.
In this case, a U.S. official said the airspace rules were tightened because in May when Obama visited Nellis Air Force Base there were "multiple violations" of the over-fly area by tour operators. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss closely held security information.
The president is scheduled this evening to attend a private $1 million fund-raiser for the Democratic National Party, accompanied by Reid, who is facing an uphill battle for re-election to a fifth term.
On Friday, Obama will hold two official events: a 10 a.m. town hall meeting at Green Valley High School in Henderson and then a mid-day speech to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to discuss his efforts to boost the sagging economy.
Obama's visit comes as a Texas man plowed his small plane into an office building in Austin, Texas, housing nearly 200 federal tax employees. The president was briefed on the incident and Homeland Security is investigating all angles but it does not initially appear to be terrorism, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.
