For almost two weeks in August, the U.S. government agreed to restrict more than 37 square miles of airspace around Ferguson, Missouri, at the request of local police. Audio recordings obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act strongly suggest that local authorities mostly wanted to keep news helicopters from filming protests against the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed the flight restrictions on Aug. 11, AP reports, and air traffic managers had to scramble to allow commercial flights to operate at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and let police helicopters fly through the area while banning others. An FAA manager said on tape that St. Louis County Police "finally admitted it really was to keep media out."
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