The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted the Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) or “no fly zone” over Mesquite, NV, the area which includes Cliven Bundy’s ranch in Bunkerville, on the same day the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) halted its cattle impoundment operation at the ranch, Breitbart News confirmed with FAA Pacific Division Public Affairs Manager Ian Gregor.
“Our Temporary Flight Restriction website shows there are no current restrictions for Nevada. We cancelled the TFR when it was no longer needed for safety reasons. If no TFR is in place in a specific area, aircraft can freely operate provided the pilots obey all Federal Aviation Regulations, ” Gregor said in an e-mail statement on Tuesday.
It should be noted that the FAA nor did the BLM release an advisory stating the TFR was lifted. Additionally, a Google search does not immediately show news reports reflecting such an announcement.
Confusion regarding the length of time relating to the TFR appears to have begun at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center website. The posting stated the TFR would be in effect for 30 days.
A spokesman at the FAA Public Affairs Western-Pacific Region Office told Breitbart News they only became aware of the 30 day length of time written into the posting, when telephone inquiries began coming in.
However, the office does not know how or why the 30-day period was inserted into the TFR, despite the FAA’s action to cancel the TFR on the same day the agency issued it.
The Bundy family has been anxious to fly over several hundred thousand acres of land to find lost cattle and re-unite mother cows with their calves and take a general post impoundment account of the land.
Although the control center pulled the initial posting, many had already viewed it, taken screen grabs, and the outrage went viral. Gregor told Breitbart News he did not “have any knowledge” of the 30 day period in that TFR posting.