The Sydney Morning Herald changed their post title, so I’ll post it as the title here. The choice quote is this:
Terry O’Connor, a spokesman for Air Services Australia, which oversees air traffic control, said that the aviation company hired by Google was warned when the flight plans were lodged last week that it would be “very difficult or impossible” to give the plane clearance to fly over some of the proposed areas.
The flight plans were lodged last week!? At least Microsoft were realistic as to where they were going to do their own. Perhaps we got on the Windows Live maps instead.
Hmm, there’s something fishy about this story. The SMH reports:
“But the flight plan was hastily changed on Friday morning after Sydney air traffic control denied the twin-engine Aero Commander permission to fly over parks and beaches in inner Sydney and the east due to air safety concerns”.
Can anyone explain why it’s safe to fly over houses but not parks?