Question

Joe Biden is in Los Angeles. Local TV is reporting they cannot fly their helicopters to report on the fire while he is in town. This is a problem because we are not getting information about the fires and potential evacuations. Very surprised Joe’s staff has not lifted restrictions!

Answer 1

This is a widely spread false claim. Although temporary flight restrictions were put in place to keep aircraft from flying too close to the president (as is common practice), life savings flights were able to bypass this restriction. This is so long as they coordinated with air traffic control before their flight. This information comes from an archived NOTAM issued by the agency for Biden's January 8 departure. This was found on the AFP fact check site aimed at debunking this very claim: https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36TF3F4

Answer 2

This claim is false. First off your source is Blue Sky a social media site where anyone can post claims that could be true or false. According to Reuters, a site known to be fair,"Aircraft fighting the Los Angeles wildfires were temporarily grounded Tuesday night into Wednesday morning due to high winds, but were allowed to fly on Wednesday during President Joe Biden’s visit to the city, contrary to online posts saying the Biden administration “closed” the air space for a day hampering firefighters." The flights were down due to the wind not Biden. According to, USA Today, "Biden was scheduled to visit California for a White House event commemorating the creation of two new national monuments on Jan. 7, as USA TODAY reported, but the blazes devastating the Los Angeles area prompted Biden to instead attend a briefing on the fires alongside California Gov. Gavin Newsom." USA Today cited its reports in its article showing that President Biden did in fact not go to the monuments but a briefing instead. 

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/temporary-grounding-la-firefighting-aircraft-due-wind-not-biden-visit-2025-01-10/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2025/01/10/biden-visit-california-wildfire-flights-fact-check/77597779007/

Comments

I think this response is really excellent. You provide sources great sources and did a great job integrating a quote into the response. I like how you called out how they got their claim from an irreputable news source.

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I think you did a really good job with responding and fact checking this claim. I like that you investigated the source they used, and were able to prove that it was an unreliable source. Along with fact checking, you were able to quote a reliable source into your fact check, which made it a very strong fact check. Overall, great job!

Answer 3

Joe Biden was in LA but firefighting operation were told to continue except for when the winds were dangerously fast.

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/temporary-grounding-la-firefighting-aircraft-due-wind-not-biden-visit-2025-01-10/

Answer 4

This has been fact-checked by many news organizations including Yahoo News which reports that the helicopters were grounded due to high wind speeds, not the former president. The media site that this user uses as a source is a place where anyone can post anything at any time. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-biden-administration-didnt-block-223130762.html

Answer 5

This is a false claim. News stations report helicopter are grounded due to high winds. In an article by CBS8 titled Santa Ana winds delay Bidens national monument plans in California. They state "LOS ANGELES — One of the worst windstorms to hit Southern California in years forced President Joe Biden Tuesday to cancel a planned trip from Los Angeles to Riverside County". Some people saw that the typical flight restrictions around Air Force One (The Presidental plane) and blamed the grounded helicopters on this. 

Citations:

City News Service. (2025, January 8). Santa Ana winds delay Biden’s national monument plans in California. cbs8.com. https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/local/biden-cancels-windstorm-disrupts-california-national-monument/509-7531b83e-46db-4efb-9f98-dd98b7f3ff32