No-Fly Zone Aims to Protect Fans and Athletes at 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil

This summer, from June 12 to July 13, Brazil will become the host to the 2014 FIFA World Cup games in soccer. To help prevent any terrorist activities from the air, it was announced that the Brazilian Air Force will establish and patrol no-fly zones over World Cup.

The 64 games of the World Cup are expected to draw millions of soccer fans to the country, and keeping them safe will undoubtedly be a big challenge. While the plan for the no-fly zones would seem to eliminate any threat of air assault, there is currently something of a loophole in the plan.



Under current Brazilian law, the country’s Brazil’s military is allowed to shoot at unresponsive aircraft thought to be on drug trafficking routes near its borders. However this is prohibited over densely populated urban areas, like the areas across the 12 cities which will host the World Cup games.

To address this flaw in the plan to protect the games, Air Force Brigadier Antonio Carlos Egito told the press last week that the Air Force is asking the Brazilian government to change the law.

Without the change, the anti-aircraft guns to be deployed near the stadiums will be nothing more than window dressing – all bark and no bite.

The plan calls for a ban on arriving air traffic, including commercial airline flights, into eight airports that are within a 4 nautical mile no-fly radius around the stadiums. While departing aircraft will be allowed operate, no arrivals will be allowed for a window of 4-5 hours starting 1 hour before each game.

While the no-fly zones will not impact the primary international airports for most of the country, airlines at Rio de Janeiro’s domestic airport Santos Dumont may be forced to cancel some 3,000 seats on flights already sold.