Military activity forces Los Angeles airport to detour night flights

[November 09, 2015]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Nighttime flights into and out of Los Angeles International Airport will avoid passing over the Pacific Ocean just to the west of the airport for the coming week because the U.S. military has activated airspace there, officials said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the military did not disclose the nature of the activities taking place near the second-busiest U.S. airport.

Airplanes normally fly over the ocean when arriving and departing the coastal Los Angeles International Airport during the night to avoid disturbing nearby residents, airport officials said in a statement.

But the FAA has indicated that military airspace over that patch of ocean was activated beginning on Friday night and continuing through Thursday night, airport officials said.

As a result, the airport will need to deviate from normal flight patterns during the next six nights, the statement said.

An FAA spokesman would not provide details on the activation of the military airspace, and a Pentagon spokeswoman could not immediately comment.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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