Jun 07 2010

Another Paris-Mexico flight barred from US airspace

Despite being a party to international aviation and human rights treaties guaranteeing free passage through international airspace, the US government claims the right to require prior government permission (granted or withheld in secret, without due process, judicial review, or publicly disclosed standards) not just for travel to or from the USA but for transit through US airspace — even on nonstop flights that aren’t scheduled to land in US territory.

Most such overflights of the US between other countries are to and from Canada, where US control and surveillance of overflights have provoked continuing controversy and opposition.

Of the handful of other airline flight paths between other countries that cross over  US territory, the Paris-Mexico route continues to generate most of the — increasingly bizarre — incidents of US refusal of permission to overfly the US.

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