The FAA issued NOTAMs for a 2,000-mile swath of the west coast of Mexico, Central and South America warning pilots and operators that military aircraft without transponders operating could be anywhere and at any altitude. It also said GPS may be jammed without warning in any of that section of the globe. “Potential risks exist for aircraft at all altitudes, including during overflight and the arrival and departure phases of flight,” the NOTAMs say. They are in effect until March 17. The Mexican government quickly issued a statement saying it was business as usual throughout the country as its winter tourist season is in full swing.
The NOTAM is similar to one posted in late November, about five weeks before a strike force of 152 aircraft flew into Venezuela to support the capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores. Before the operation there were several incidents in which airline and business jet crews reported close calls with military tankers off the northern coast of Venezuela. President Donald Trump has been warning of possible military action in the region covered by the NOTAMs to curb drug trafficking.
It sure looks like a prelude.
FAA advisories do not appear in a vacuum. They show up when somebody in government is already moving metal and lighting up the spectrum. “Military activity” plus “GNSS interference” is not theory. That is ops.
Much like Venezuela. I hope this stays at “caution,” but the pattern is familiar. Pilots and dispatch should plan for GNSS loss and the possibility of traffic that is not talking.
On the other hand it could also be part of a deception plan. If the US always put of a NOTAM like this prior to an actual operation then that would compromise the security of the operation. A good deception plan would be to put out many of these that portend no operations, because then no one knows which ones do forecast ops. Still, from an aviation standpoint you cannot afford to ignore the NOTAM, but then again it is so vague that concrete action is hard to take, other than increased vigilance or just staying home.
How do you spell VOR?
LOL! I still tune VORs when navigating using GPS. I wonder how many of today’s “aviators” have flown a low frequency range approach or even an NDB or VOR.
I just hope that Tally Ho does not get blown up while sailing back to Great Britain to run a race that the boat won in 1927. They were last seen on youtube in Costa Rica headed for the Panama Canal.
Aviation risk management challenge:
Likelihood unknown.
US doesn’t have enough carriers for current deployments and strategic objectives (open source info); stretch to add EastPac ops may be less likely.
Consequences up to catastrophic.
Any pilot/carrier “… cannot afford to ignore the NOTAM…”
The FAA might as well NOTAM the entire planet at least until the currently advertised November elections ( subject to change), as no location domestic or other countries, oceans , are off Peace President Donald J. Trump’s table for decapitation regime change, invasion, or economic sanctions. I wonder if we will have enough airplanes for all this military flex and 2026 Oshkosh Airventure and Sun-N-Fun warbird/warfighter recruiting effort.
I am a big believer in the “law of unintended consequences”
Even more so than entropy, that is the fundamental law of the universe.
Map should be labeled, “Gulf of America”
No, it shouldn’t. It’s the Gulf of Mexico.
Hoping you are being ironic. The map is labeled correctly.
Take the political stuff elsewhere.
That’s tough to do, Rick. These days, that’s the Sargasso Sea we all swim in.
Relevant political commentary is fine but drifting off topic into generalities will be nuked. There are plenty of places to go for that.
This can mean only one thing: Colombia is toast. And Greenland is next. We all have involuntarily become Maj. Kong.
Russ has unwittingly created the Frankenstein thread. It lives!