Military Closure at LGA

[PhilDernerJr]

Josh, Eric and I were out at the Grand Central pedestrian bridge waiting for N109UW when we heard the tower tell the planes in line for rwy 13 departures that there was a military closure for them.

You can see about our encounter with police in this Spotter Blotter thread:

I gotta also be honest. The military closure was weird. We searched the skies and saw nothing. Then, once I saw the cops on scene, they opened the departures back up.

Could it have been a security thing? Maybe the tower was called after someone reported suspicious activity, and the tower held 13 deps until cops got on scene? Maybe the tower told the planes it was a military stop to not cause alarm? Then once the police got on scene, they radioed and let them know and the tower opened it back up. Am I thinking too much?

Why would they only close 13 departures otherwise? We didn't see anything in the skies that was different either.

What do you think? We Josh, Eric and I inadvertently close down LGA for a few minutes there?

[Matt Molnar]

Something is up. Remember last Tuesday, there was a NOTAM for military activity at LGA around the same time, and nobody saw anything then either. Those of you working at LGA know anything?

The only hypothesis I can come up with is that the military is transporting sensitive people between the Manhattan or Brooklyn federal lockups and some place like Guantanamo in unmarked, untracked aircraft.

[LGA777]

I was monitoring the tower freq while US 135 was in line for t/o while you guys where on the bridge, NK 171 (321) was in position and tower issued a stop on departures. A reason was not given and I heard no mention of Military activity. It lasted about 5-7 mins which is probably about the amount of time it would have taken to check the boy's out. Could be totally un-related, it happens fairly often and is issued by NY Tracon in Westbury. I would not rule out though that it was because of the photogs on the bridge !

LGA777

[USAF Pilot 07]

Maybe just training?

[PhilDernerJr]

Yes, Ron, there was a Spirit holding in position.

The tower said military activity, and a minute later the Spirit asked how long they'd be holding, because he wanted to shut one engine or something, and the tower said he didn't know.

Clark, I'd say it was training, but for who? For what? There didn't seem to be any military traffic in the area.

Gotham, yeah, I was thinking about that, too. But I think that was a scheduled activity. I didn't notice any NOTAMs for this today.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Well you don't actually need the a/c in the area for training....

You just go through your procedures and pretend as if the a/c is there, when in reality it's not...

Usually just to ensure the ATC folks are current and up to date with procedures etc...