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Las Vegas Airspace During COVID ATC Zero Event

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FAA Regulations

Another pilot and I were discussing the ATC zero event that happened in March of this year at Las Vegas tower when there was a controller that tested positive for COVID-19.

I believe there were still approach radar controllers that were handling the protection of airspace for IFR arrivals and departures. Obviously, it's a slow process, since you can only let 1 plane go at a time. And I'm not sure what the VFR aircraft were doing, since... wasn't the bravo still active? So, wouldn't they need a bravo clearance to depart or arrive VFR?? Or did the airspace around the airport become class E or G? I know pilots were using the tower frequency as a CTAF to announce their position to other aircraft.

This pilot I'm speaking with also claims that all class B airports have a class D ring around them. I thought this was a bizarre claim. I've seen class D associated with class B airports before, such as LAX, but the chart for Las Vegas doesn't show any class D depicted, and as far as I know the class B didn't shutdown in March when Las Vegas had it's ATC zero event.

Does anyone have any answers to these questions?

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1 Answers



  1. JoeBleaux on Apr 17, 2021

    I listend to the liveatc(dot)net broadcast for Tower and Ground during this. There was nothing “lower” than approach on the ATC scale and the Bravo did not exist. It was like the wild west with every yahoo with an airplane within 200 miles seemed to be in the pattern doing touch-n-gos. Even funnier were the bus drivers who have not made a CTAF call since their Instrument checkride fumbling over a simple downwind call.

    Pretty good chance the archive is still available.

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