ADIZ – International Ops 2018

Tag: ADIZ

Buenos Aires airports closed to GA/BA during G20 summit

The 2018 G20 Leaders meeting will be held in Buenos Aires on November 30 and December 1, 2018. GA/BA flights will be prohibited from operating to both SAEZ/Ministro Pistarini and SABE/Jorge Newbery – but also all the smaller airport across the city as well.

AIP SUP A28/2018 goes into all of the restrictions in detail, but here are the key takeaways.

The airports…

Between 1500L on Nov 29 to 2200L on Dec 1 (1800Z Nov 29 to 0100Z Dec 2), here are the restrictions:

SABE/Jorge Newbery – will be totally closed to all non-G20 aircraft.
SAEZ/Ministro Pistarini – will only accept regular airline flights. All GA/BA flights are prohibited. RWY 17/35 will be closed and used as a taxiway and for parking only. Many SID and STARS will be suspended and a full list is in Appendix 2 of the SUP. (UPDATE 22NOV: Notam A9669/18 has now been published which brings forward the start time for the ban at this airport to midnight local time on Nov 26).
SADP/El Palomar – closed to civil ops, although 8 slots will be made available to airlines from 1800Z-2300Z on Nov 29.
SADF/San Fernando, SADJ/Mariano Moreno, SADM/Morón – all closed to civil ops.

So with all the Buenos Aires airports out of action for GA/BA over these dates, there aren’t a lot of other options. The closest international airports are: SAAR/Rosario to the north, SAZS/Plata Del Mar to the south, or SUMU/Montevideo – but that’s in a different country!

Bottom line – if you’re GA/BA and you need to get to Buenos Aires at the end of the month, you’ll need to make sure you go there before the G20 restrictions come into force on 1800z on Nov 29.

The airspace…

SAEF/Ezeiza FIR will see the following restrictions in place between those same timings, 1800z Nov 29 – 0100z Dec 2:

All users must submit a flight plan a minimum of 6 hours before estimated off blocks time.
All aircraft must operate on discreet transponder codes at all times.
An ADIZ is in place out to 250NM from EZE VOR from SFC-UNL within the FIR.
There will be 3 temporary restricted areas in place, BAIRES, SPY GLASS and ROJO.
The BAIRES airspace overlays on top of SAEZ/Ministro Pistarini out to 55nm.
Expect Air Force fast jets to be patrolling and operating with ‘due regard‘ overhead during various times.

Did we miss something? Get in touch!

Expanded Canadian ADIZ

24 May, 2018 / Ben Zavadil / 0 Comments

As of May 24, Canada has expanded its ADIZ to include all its national territory in the Arctic Archipelago.

Requirements for operations in the ADIZ remain the same. You’ll need a transponder with altitude reporting and a working two-way radio. Remember, you’ll need to include the time and location of ADIZ border crossing in your flight plans RMK section.

Full AIC 2/18 for the detailed lat/long of the expanded area here.

Bangladesh is now one big ADIZ

6 February, 2018 / David Mumford / 0 Comments

Bangladesh has decided to establish an ADIZ over the entire country, including a massive chunk of airspace off their south coastline that actually extends over much of the adjoining Indian VECF/Kolkata FIR.

Aircraft intending to fly into, through, or within this new Bangladesh ADIZ must now obtain an ADC (Air Defence Clearance) number beforehand. Just file your flight plan, and they will send this to you by AFTN. Make sure you write it down – as they will ask you for it on HF before you enter their airspace.

If you don’t have AFTN access, you can get the number by calling +880-2890-1081 or emailing adnc@baf.mil.bd

The authorities in Bangladesh have released a scary sounding AIC on all this, which you can read in full here. What they fail to mention there, but have published by Notam, is that there are actually a bunch of airways over the ocean (P646, N895, M770, L524 and W112) where you won’t have to get this ADC number, unless you deviate towards the landmass of Bangladesh.

As the Notam clarifies:

A0032/18 NOTAMN Q) VGFR/QXXXX/IV/BO/AE/000/999/ 
A) VGFR B) 1802010001 C) PERM E) THE FLW AMDT/UPDATES ARE BROUGHT TO THE AIP-SUPP 01/2018: 
1. ACFT INTENDING TO OPR INTO, THROUGH OR WI BANGLADESH ADIZ SHALL OBTAIN ADC NR FM THE FLW CONTACT DETAILS. 
TELEPHE: +880 2 8901081 
FAX : +880 2 8901081 
E- MAIL: ADNC AT THE RATE OF BAF.MIL.BD 
AFTN : VGHSZQZX 
2. FLT OPR ON ATS RTE P646, N895, M770, L524 AND W112 SHALL NOT REQUIRED TO OBTAIN ADC NR UNLESS DEVIATED TOWARDS THE LAND MASS OF BANGLADESH. 
3. GUARD FREQ. 121.50 MHZ SHALL NOT BE USED TO CTC THE AIR DEFENCE UNIT. 
4. ARTICLE 'L' IN THE PROCEDURES FOR AIR DEFENCE CLEARANCE IN THE AIP-SUPP SHALL BE TREATED AS CNLD. 
5. FOR THE TIME BEING DOMESTIC FLT AND FLT OF STATE ACFT AND GENERAL AVIATION ACFT OF BANGLADESH SHALL NOT BE REQUIRED TO OBTAIN ADC NUMBER.

So you won’t need an ADC number on those airways, but for everywhere else in that big red ice-pick-shaped chunk of airspace, you’ll need to get authorisation. As the Bangladesh AIS office politely warn in their AIC: “Aircraft flying without a valid ADC number or failing to comply with any restriction or deviating from flight plan will be liable to interception by Bangladesh Air Force Interceptor aircraft according to ICAO Standard Interception Procedure.”

US 737 tests the China ADIZ

26 March, 2017 / Declan Selleck / 3 Comments

China: Go away quickly please
US Aircraft: Nope
China: Go away quickly!
US Aircraft: No!

The US is doing us all a huge favour at the moment. In fact, it’s been providing this service to the world for some time.

Every so often, a country extends its borders a little too far – outside the normal 12nm limit, for example. China has been busy. They’ve been building some things in the South China Sea. Islands, in fact. And on those islands they’ve built runways, control towers, and big radars. Naturally, they confirmed last Friday that they are for civilian use only. Hmmm.

So the US dusts off an airplane and knocks on the door. Flies around for a bit. Sees what’s going on. And reminds the country that international waters are just that. They publish a list each year of where they’ve done this. Worth a read.

In 2013 they popped up an ADIZ. And made everyone passing through it copy their Flight Plans to Beijing. In principle, ADIZ’s are a pretty good idea. The normal 12nm isn’t really much time for the military to figure out if you’re coming to bomb them. Especially on the weekend.

But you can’t tell airplanes to get out of an ADIZ. It’s an Identification Zone, not an Intercept Zone. So, normally ADIZ’s require you to squawk something and have a Flight Plan.

That much is OK. But China has been warning aircraft to get out of ‘their airspace’. And it’s not. This 737 (aka P-8 Poseidon) went for a nosey.

These operations help us all operating internationally to have less rules to worry about. Which is good.

Initially, most abided by the 2015 ADIZ rules. In 2016 that adherence quietly eroded. And China quietly didn’t care too much. It did threaten a second ADIZ in the South China Sea, but since the first one didn’t really take off, they probably won’t.

It’s part of a bigger diplomatic game. Interesting to watch, though.