A look at unscheduled visitors from the skies were handled at a couple of big league facilities recently.
John McHale Jr. was MLB’s point man for security issues leading up to last year’s All-Star Game at Target Field in Minneapolis, and worked with the National Counterterrorism Center to employ its new drone detection system as it was being developed. Although neither the center nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to requests to speak for this story, McHale and the ballpark’s Matt Hoy each said they were told that the effort, dubbed “Operation Foul Ball,” was the first time the system had been used at a live sports event.
And it was tested early.
Shortly before the game’s first pitch was thrown, security officials stationed at a command center situated at a public works facility outside the stadium’s perimeter spotted a drone as it ascended from a parking lot next to the ballpark.
A pedestrian outside the ballpark saw it, too, and immediately told a local police officer who was on foot. The situation “resolved itself quickly,” said McHale, and no other such incidents occurred.
Matt Clark, then assistant chief of police with the Minneapolis Police Department, orchestrated the collaboration with Homeland Security from the earliest stages of planning. The city is already looking ahead to 2018, when the Super Bowl is scheduled to be played at the Minnesota Vikings’ future stadium, now under construction.
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A drone equipped with a camera flew into Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte during the Carolina Panthers’ exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs last Aug. 17. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer J.S. Franklin wrote in his report that a person was “stopped and questioned after causing a disturbance at the Carolina Panthers Stadium.” The drone’s operator was detained and released and the information was forwarded to the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the report.
Airspace over Bank of America Stadium is considered Class B — some of the most restricted, and drones are prohibited. Class B airspace surrounds the nation’s busiest airports, including Charlotte Douglas International, which is less than seven miles from the stadium. All pilots operating an aircraft within a Class B airspace area must receive clearance from the air traffic control at the airport having jurisdiction for that area, according to the FAA. Controllers in the tower then monitor the flight, much as they do when a blimp is hovering nearby, and alert any commercial aircraft of the flight’s presence.
