Thursday, June 17, 2010

Eye In the Sky Over Gulf Spill Zone


Airborne radar domes keep watch over Gulf spill airspace
By DANE SCHILLER
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
June 16, 2010, 11:15PM
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Smiley N. Pool Chronicle







OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO - As hundreds of aircraft, from giant cargo planes to tiny helicopters, fly over the massive oil spill, airborne officers conduct a high-stakes symphony to reduce the chances of midair collisions.

Instead of a tuxedos, they wear flight suits.

And their orchestra pits are planes, outfitted with giant dome roof radars.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say the planes, which are based in Corpus Christi and Florida, have proved their worth through hurricanes, earthquakes and now the oil spill.

Crews aboard the distinctive P-3 turbo-props give pilots a picture of what is going on inside a restricted area in the Gulf of Mexico that is 190 miles long and 125 miles wide.

Deep inside the rectangular-shaped box is the spot where the oil rig exploded in April and unleashed the largest spill in U.S. history.

For safety reasons, the Federal Aviation Administration restricts who can fly inside the area, and extends to 3,000 feet high.

"Nine Thirty Five Alpha Lima, you have traffic on your nose," crackled a call from the command plane earlier this week. "There are low-flying aircraft inbound," went another.

They have their own jargon.

"Source" is the approximate spot of the Deepwater Horizon when it sank.

"Burn Box" marks the location of seaborne infernos where oil is now burned in an attempt to limit damage.

And "Omaha 99" is the call sign of a border patrol plane in command of the air.

Strict orders
No one is shot down or arrested for disobeying, but the FAA can be notified to take further action if pilots disobey.

On this day, orders were strict: Only the planes spraying dispersants are allowed to fly at 1,000 feet or lower.

Others flying higher tracked the flow to alert clean-up crews what was coming their way.

Then there are scientists, VIPs, news media and the everyday air shuttles taking workers to and from the hundreds of oil rigs that dot the waters.

"It definitely gets my adrenaline going," said CBP officer Ned Leonard, who advises the pilots what is going on around them.

"You have a three-dimensional puzzle. Some are climbing, some are descending," he continued. "We are watching and anticipating problems before they come up. We give them a heads-up."

They have dealt with a multitude of flights, nearly 300 one day earlier this week.

As the helicopters and planes work the spill area, far above them travels the normal commercial aviation traffic that transits the Gulf of Mexico.

On the water's surface, yet another production plays out.

Dozens of boats clustered in the area, with the center being marked by Discover Enterprise, a floating drill ship. Gas coming from the well beneath the sea was routed to a giant flare.

A massive curtain of water cascades along the side to protect the ship from the heat given off by the burning gas.

'You can smell it'
The oil, which looks orange at times, extends for miles and gives the water a still, mucky look.

"They are trying to contain it, but it is just everywhere," noted a CBP pilot, as he looked out the cockpit window toward the spill's ground zero. "You can smell it now."

The pilot requested his name not be published for security reasons, because his normal job is flying off the coast of Latin America to hunt drug traffickers.

This P-3, with the distinctive roof-mounted Airborne Early Warning Radar that can see for 250 miles in all directions, is normally used to find traffickers sneaking their illicit loads toward the U.S.

Their mission over the oil today is in some ways a culmination of what began back in 2004 during Hurricane Ivan when they provided air-traffic guidance for government planes flying over the devastation in Florida.

And they are attuned to the human toll of the disaster. Earlier this week, a crew member on a spotter plane saw what looked like a lifeboat.

It turned out to be a buoy, but the sighting underscored that it isn't lost on anyone that 11 men from the Deepwater Horizon rig were declared dead, but their remains were not found.

"There are still some guys missing out there," CBP officer Tom Adair said

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