WASHINGTON — The White House said Monday a no-fly zone the U.S. government imposed over Ferguson, Mo., for nearly two weeks in August should not have restricted helicopters for news organizations that wanted to operate in the area to cover violent protests there.
Audio recordings obtained by The Associated Press showed the Federal Aviation Administration working with local authorities to define a 37-square-mile flight restriction so that only police helicopters and commercial flights could fly through the area, following demonstrations over the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
The Obama administration’s defense of its actions centered on a provision of obscure federal regulations intended to allow press flights as long as they meet certain conditions. White House spokesman Josh Earnest sidestepped questions about conversations on the tapes showing police working with the FAA to keep media away.
“In this case, what the FAA says is that they took the prudent step of implementing the temporary flight restriction in the immediate aftermath of reports of shots fired at a police helicopter, but within 12 to 14 hours, that flight restriction was updated in a way to remove restrictions for reporters who were seeking to operate in the area,” Earnest said.
In Missouri, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar defended his department’s involvement Monday, telling reporters that “at no time did we request that only media be kept out of the airspace.” The chief said the safety restrictions were prompted by reports of gunfire and that conversations on the tapes were “out of context.” He did not elaborate.
On the tapes, an FAA manager is heard assuring a St. Louis County Police Department official that the updated restrictions would allow planes to land at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport but, “It will still keep news people out. … The only way people will get in there is if they give them permission in there anyway so … it still keeps all of them out.”
“Yeah,” replied a county police captain. “I have no problem with that whatsoever.”
The disclosures about the secret motivations by local police to keep press flights away emerged during a sensitive time in Ferguson, which is awaiting a decision by a grand jury on whether a city police officer, Darren Wilson, will face criminal charges for fatally shooting Brown on Aug. 9. Violence flared for weeks across the city through September, and the FAA put the first temporary flight restrictions, known as TFRs, in place on Aug. 11.
The police chief said the FAA contacted police first about restricting flights. The audio recordings between the department and the FAA indicated it was the police who wanted the restrictions — and that FAA officials accommodated them.
Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the Justice Department was not involved in the FAA considerations and said the American public needs to understand what is happening in Ferguson.
“Anything that would artificially inhibit the ability of newsgatherers to do what they do is something I think needs to be avoided,” Holder said Monday.
A spokesman for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the FAA should impose flight restrictions “for one reason and one reason only: public safety.” Her office will follow up with the FAA “to ensure that was the basis on which these restrictions were imposed,” said the spokesman, John LaBombard.
At the White House, Earnest stressed that under FAA rules the no-fly zone as it was re-designated after Aug. 12 would have exempted press flights as long as pilots had filed flight plans and carried accredited reporters on board.
“The updated flight restriction didn’t have any impact on media access.”
But the administration’s statement about what it believes should have happened under the no-fly rules is inconsistent with what actually happened during the period. None of the St. Louis television stations was advised that media helicopters could enter the airspace even under the lesser restrictions, even under federal rules that would have permitted flights “carrying properly accredited news representatives.” The FAA’s no-fly notice indicated the area was closed to all aircraft except police and planes coming to and from the airport.
“Only relief aircraft operations under direction of St. Louis County Police Department are authorized in the airspace,” it said. “Aircraft landing and departing St. Louis Lambert Airport are exempt.”
