Obama and Chicago

Get used to it. I think our city will become EVEN MORE paralyzed with the frequent return of Obama (he has said he will be back a lot). Bush went to the sticks of Texas, Clinton was all over.
(full disclosure - I'm the medical director of a EMS helicopter program, thats what this is all about)
hope you don't get traumatized somewhere and have to be choppered to a trauma center, or end up at a small hospital with a big heart attack (or any number of other time sensitive things)


President Obama is coming to town for the weekend - and because of this
there will be VERY strict flight restrictions over the majority of
Chicago-land starting today at 4 p.m. going till Monday at 9 a.m.

The restricted area covers 30 nautical miles from a point close to his
house - the edge of the restricted area is along the east side of DuPage
Airport.

In order to fly in the restricted area the pilot will have to call and
get permission - I've been told this could delay a mission anywhere from
2 minutes to 2 hours.

I will be instructing the flight coordinators to let all callers
requesting flights in or through the restricted area know that the pilot
will have to call for permission due to the flight restrictions in place
and that we will call them back if there is an extended delay. I am
also going to instruct the coordinators to plan (critical care) ground back-up for
any flight requests in the event of a serious delay.

 

I guess these flight restrictions don't apply to Ferraris flying low on the highways?

Since my learjet and chopper are merely bits and bytes on my sim at home, I really don't get bothered by this.

BTW: City Hall changed their Obama themed decoration.

 

Some people might die because of this but then,it is not Obama's orders ,just normal Secret Service procedures regardless of who is the Potus.

 

Why can't they just make an exception for hospitals / emergency services?

 

This is correct. While they don't make any blanket exceptions, they're generally pretty quick on responding to these situations. This actually happened in Chicago when Bush came into town a few years ago.

 

The road block in front of my place (I'm living near campus) cuts way down on the traffic and noise.

 

Yes, they do! Upon arriving at O'hare, the Kennedy will be shut down so the Obama motorcade can pass through without hindrance!

 

Actually it makes no difference whether they shut down the Kennedy or not. It is a parking lot no matter what.

You could actually argue the other way around: Lives will be saved by inhibiting helicopter flights. Just look back to 2008 and all the choppers that went down (I believe including a medical one).

 

Well, 2008 was a terrible year for EMS Helicopters.
28 deaths.
I think that many people just died in their cars by "accidents" or alcohol related incidents while I was typing this response.