A BE55 Pilot flew into a stadium TFR because he misunderstood that the TFR Regulation included prohibiting cruise flight transiting through a TFR as well as circling and loitering flight.

2010-06 · NASA ASRS report 894498

Date: 2010-06 · Aircraft: Baron 55/Cochise · Phase: cruise

Anomalies: airspace-violation-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-other-unknown

Synopsis

A BE55 Pilot flew into a stadium TFR because he misunderstood that the TFR Regulation included prohibiting cruise flight transiting through a TFR as well as circling and loitering flight.

Narrative

I flew through stadium TFR for a baseball game. I did not know I did anything wrong until Tower told me to phone Approach. I told Approach that I did not see any TFR's online which I checked prior to flight. Approach said there is a permanent TFR for ballgames. When I got home I looked up and printed out twenty eight pages from a pilot website. It talked about monitoring 121.5 and not circling or loitering over dams; power plants; etc. It then goes into individual states. The only reference to a three mile and 3000 FT restriction was under Florida and California for Disneyland and Disneyworld. This did not add up. I called the FSS. They directed me to FAA.gov; which did not work on three tries. Once it redirected to a search engine; once it listed fifteen pages of options and once it wanted inputs I did not know. I asked the FSS to read the FDC and he said it was 9/5151. I went back to the pages I have read in the past which I previously monitored and it is titled. 9/5151; but it's twenty eight pages and does not mention the sports TFR. The light bulb then went on and I clicked on 9/5151 and a two page report on the three mile; 3000 FT sports TFR came up. I was not negligent of the regulation; I had read it many times but the way it is presented in AOPA I believed that it was OK to fly by a sports event in cruise as long as you did not loiter or circle. AOPA gives no guidance that you need to click on 9/5151 to get the sports TFR and the FAA site was totally unusable. I was not trying to do anything wrong. I was talking to Tower right before flying by the game and then went right to Tower. No ATIS nor did Tower gave any indication of the TFR. I was following the regulation as I had read it. I just did not know that I needed to click on what I thought was the title of the twenty eight pages online to learn of the sports TFR.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

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