Been following this one closely and the timing is deeply suspicious. I cross-referenced the NOTAM data against the reported incident window and the restriction went active roughly 4-6 hours prior - that's not standard emergency protocol, that's anticipatory.
For those who haven't dug into this yet, FAA Temporary Flight Restrictions can be filed under several classifications. The one associated with this area was logged under the security umbrella rather than the standard hazard or airspace categories, which limits public disclosure considerably more than people realise.
What I find particularly telling is the geographic footprint of the restriction. It extended well beyond the ranch boundary itself - roughly 3nm radius if I'm reading the archived NOTAM correctly. That's not a precautionary buffer, that's containment geometry.
I've been doing spirit box sessions for about twelve years now and I've learned to pay attention when multiple anomalous threads converge simultaneously. The restriction, the reported electromagnetic interference in that window, and the subsequent media blackout on specifics all arrived together. Individual coincidences you can dismiss. Clusters are different.
Has anyone managed to pull the full ATC communication logs from that period through a FOIA request yet? That's the obvious next investigative step. I submitted one last year regarding a separate Yorkshire incident and the response timeline was considerable, but it did eventually yield something useful.
Would be interested to hear from anyone with aviation background who can speak to whether the classification used here follows normal procedure.
