The FAA has issued a NOTAM advising pilots to “exercise caution” anywhere near Venezuela “due to the worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela.” The agency is also urging anyone planning to fly in the region to give 72-hour advance notice to faawatch@faa.gov. The NOTAM covers the Maiquetia Flight Information Region, which includes most of northern Venezuela and areas of the Caribbean adjacent to the country. On Saturday, the airspace over the region virtually cleared out, with flights that would normally go through Venezuelan airspace diverting around it. The NOTAM is in effect until Feb. 19. The U.S. military has used airstrikes to blow up boats suspected to be carrying drugs off the Venezuelan coast in recent months, and the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier was moved into the region earlier this month. The NOTAM was issued as Reuters reported the U.S. was planning to escalate its actions in the region. The full NOTAM is copied below.
There have been no direct clashes between U.S. and Venezuelan forces and no civilian aircraft have been targeted, but the FAA said in a background information notice issued as a companion to the NOTAM that GPS signals have been jammed. “GNSS jammers and spoofers can affect aircraft out to 250 nautical miles and can impact a wide variety of critical communication, navigation, surveillance, and safety equipment on aircraft.” The backgrounder says that just because nothing has happened doesn’t mean it won’t. “While Venezuela has at no point expressed an intent to target civil aviation, the Venezuelan military possesses advanced fighter aircraft and multiple weapons systems capable of reaching or exceeding civil aircraft operating altitudes, as well as potential low-altitude risk from man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and anti-aircraft artillery,” the backgrounder says.
Diversionary War Theory can affect about everything in its application, unfortunately also GA.
Another naive action obtusely played out by the dangerous cultists of Orange to give geo-political advantage to both Russia and China. Well played, Great Leader.
No doubt the flow of drugs to American junkies will slow to a trickle after Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent on this boneheaded American military invasion.
Right you are, Dave. When the walls close in, make noise somewhere else.
Make it sound urgent. Make it look big. Get everybody pointing south instead of at the mess right in front of them.
How can it all unravel this quickly? A bicameral governance lacking the will to enforce checks and balance. What’s next–civil unrest?
Another colonizing action by regime change attacking a sovereign nation by placing a $50 million dollar bounty on it’s president, after 2 decades of sanctions designed to destroy it’s economy creating a hoped for internal revolution to take over all it’s resources as collateral to the global bankers to help pay the juice on our out of control debt. In spite of all the sanctions, CIA covert activity, $50 million dollar bounty, Venezuela’s economy has improved, with strong support by it’s citizens for it’s elected government. This has nothing to do with drug trafficking. It is flexing in our hemisphere by “Clockwork Orange” to distract from Epstein, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, our collapsing economy, military intervention in our cities, inflation, blue and red politicians abandoning their positions as the empire empire implodes under the weight of debt, corruption, and narcissism on steroids. Checks and balances, Constitution, respect for basic human rights in our country and the rest of the planet??? Fuggetaboutdit! The closing of Venezuelan airspace is a replay of Israel/US attack on Iran when Iran closed it’s airspace a couple of days before Team Israel unleashed Moussad internally followed with attempted aerial bombardment. We had another Nuke task force in place, then did our B2, US Navy FA/18 shock and awe stunt. The only shock was Israel begging for mercy, shock that Iran gave permission for US to bomb empty buildings/bunkers with the best technology we have encrypting everything, and US military awe of Iranian missle technology and firepower as they were turning Israel into a parking lot, revealed the non-stealthy stealth of the F-35, Swiss cheese Iron Dome, for another public a_ _kicking of our old tech, worn out, over stretch military… resulting with the cult of orange having the audacity to declare victory! Venezuela will be another Vietnam but not take 15 years to lose. I wonder how many US body bags it will take before Americans say enough of continuous war waged by US since WWII?
Yup, Agent Orange busy handing Eastern Europe to Vladimir and South America ( and perhaps Canada) to the Chinese.
Get a grip, Guys! This is supposed to be an aviation related site, fact based, not a place for your political fantasies.
The article is 100% political in nature based on facts. To expect the comments to reflect anything different is a fantasy in itself.
The trouble over Venezuela is not staying over Venezuela. The latest from the FAA, IATA, Reuters, AP, the Spanish El País, the airlines, and the aviation agencies in Colombia, Panama, and Curacao all point to the same thing: the airspace is sliding into a geoaeronautical mess.
The FAA now calls the Maiquetía FIR a high caution area and wants 72 hours notice from United States operators. That alone pushed foreign airlines out. Their insurers did not blink.
Controllers in Curacao, Colombia, Panama, and Trinidad are already taking the hit as traffic swings wide. Longer legs, more fuel, tighter sectors, and busy frequencies are now the norm. Dispatchers are pushing north south traffic into the oceanic lanes, loading up Miami Center and San Juan CERAP. Cargo carriers are stretching their routes, and general aviation has pulled back after insurers raised the risk numbers on Caracas, Maracaibo, and Valencia. Those airplanes are now crowding the island ramps.
One shaky Flight Information Region is setting the pace for the entire region. The maps did not change, but the sky did, and everyone is trying to cautiously keep up.