Santa May Be Banned over Salt Lake

I’m not making this up:

Santa Claus and his eight reindeer might have to bypass Utah’s capital this year if the Salt Lake City Department of Airports has its way.

For years now Salt Lake City has been very accommodating of the jolly old elf and his flying team. The city’s general aviation ordinance makes it clear that Santa’s sleigh has free rein to fly about the city at low altitudes on Christmas Eve despite restrictions on low-flying aircraft other days of the year.

Now, however, some airport leaders want to rewrite the city’s general aviation rules — a revision that includes eliminating the city’s long-standing exemption on low-flying Christmas Eve reindeer.

And other good point brought up:

…if the city bans Rudolph’s low-flying crew, who will be there to enforce the law? After all, the police are too busy and the city can’t afford to pay enforcement officers overtime to go undercover in search of rogue reindeer.

Apparently this came about because in the city’s code aviation code, there’s a provision that calls for small aircraft to maintain an altitude of more than 2,000 feet over the city. There is one exception to that 2,000-foot provision: “On Christmas Eve only, flying reindeer and any cargo they may be towing shall be exempt from the two-thousand-foot height restriction.” This was obviously put in there in good fun, but folks are reading far too much into it.