Brazilian Airforce To Declare No-Fly Zone Over World Cup Stadiums

The Brazilian Air Force will declare no-fly zones over World Cup stadiums to prevent terrorist attacks during this year's tournament, "but there's a catch: it can't shoot down intruders, for now," according to Anthony Boadle of REUTERS. By law, Brazil's military "can only shoot at unresponsive civilian planes on drug trafficking routes near its borders, but not over densely populated urban areas where games will be played in 12 cities." The Air Force "is asking the Brazilian government to change the shoot-down law to allow effective defense of the air space" during the 64 games of the June 12-July 13 tournament. In the meantime, "the anti-aircraft guns to be deployed near the stadiums cannot be fired at a plane flying into a no-fly zone. The "good news" for football fans trying to "follow their teams from one game to the next" is that only 10% of seats have been sold on Brazilian domestic flights during the World Cup. Skyrocketing prices for flights during that period "came down" 25% in January (REUTERS, 3/22).