The Places on Earth Where Planes Don't Fly 

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Kudos to the Keeps rep that saw Simon’s glorious, shiny dome and said “that’s my hair spokesman”

Simon really just dropped the coldest sentence on the ol Bermuda Triangle, refused to elaborate, and left

Back on the last Monday in August on a brief layover in Paris I was walking down the Champs-Élysées mid-morning when suddenly I heard the distinctive sound of a jet aircraft flying low. Having been to Paris many times I knew that you never heard airplanes over the city, especially not flying low so I immediately looked up only to see the 6 jets of the Patrouille de France flying from the direction of the Place de la Concorde towards the Arc de Triomphe trailing blue, white and red smoke! Somehow I managed to quickly get my phone out and snap a photo as they streaked away. Since it was just a random Monday workday and not any special occasion their appearance was perplexing to say the least. After I got home to America I found out that they had been practicing for the opening ceremonies of the Rugby World Cup the week after and my timing had been absolutely perfect!

0:35 - Chapter 1 - Disney parks 2:10 - Mid roll ads 3:35 - Back to the video 4:00 - Chapter 2 - Paris, France 5:55 - Chapter 3 - Machu picchu 8:15 - Chapter 4 - Mecca 10:20 - Chapter 5 - North Korea 11:55 - Chapter 6 - Tibet

I love that the background of the North Korea title was Machu Picchu. It was my favourite landmark of my trip to Pyongyang

Several years ago, I worked with a man who after he got out of the army, he was flying between Washington DC and New York City. One day he was visited by the secret service who wanted to know why he was flying over Camp David. He pulled a dcurrent map that did not show Camp David was a no fly zone

There’s a designated no-fly area near Price, Maryland, for the benefit of the high-powered rocketry hobbyists who have a launch-site there.

Lots of planes that were lost trying to run supplies over the Himalayas during WWII were lost. (Many times, they were trying to get in/out of Burma over the Yunnan part of the plateau.) It is about as unforgiving and perilous of a place as you will find.

I’ve heard that Simon has requested a no-fly zone over his studio, so as to keep the noise-related delays in production to a minimum. When you produce 57 videos per day, you can’t afford to stop for a minute every time you hear jet engines. He should hear back from the Czech government in five to seven years.

I like trains

The stadium rule is generally only on game days. Additionally, there are waivers for things such as blimps and sky writers/ fly-overs/ banners, etc. Source- I work security at one of the largest ones.

I could have sworn the airspace above Disney has been restricted way longer than that. I remember hearing about it back in the 90s when I went there as a kid.

Great presentation and content as always! Don't worry. All pilots know about restricted airspaces. But they could make mistakes due to poor flight planning or lacking of situational awareness or navigation errors. My humble comment as a student pilot. Greetings from Germany

My man, being straight forward with the keeps add, respect. Cheers Simon.

I can vouch for turbulence in mountainous regions. Years ago I was in a C-130 flying about 20k over mountains in Afghanistan. I was walking toward the back of the cargo compartment and the Loadmaster was walking forward. She had just gotten my attention to say something when suddenly the plane dropped. I got my hand up and held myself steady on the wingbox until I crashed back down. She simply vanished into the hog trough until, she too, came crashing down. Face first. Everyone was ok and we all had a good laugh about it later. Wish I could have recorded it. The look on her face as she drifted past me makes me giggle to this day. She called it her "This shit ain't right" face.

Simon, there's also a large area in the Pacific Ocean where planes avoid because that zone is very far from any country. If an incident would occur, it would take a long time and cost a lot to rescue the survivors if any managed to survive the duration.

Lhasa Gonggar airport LXA, elevation 3570m in Tibet has regular daily flights serving domestic Chinese cities. The annual capacity is 9 million passengers. Pilots flying those routes must be extremely familiar with emergency procedures should decompression happens.

The other day I made a 787 flight in Microsoft Flight Sim from Anchorage to Moscow just to see what would happen. The route takes you very close to both magnetic and true poles and as you get close there eventually is nowhere to go but south so the magenta course line on the Nav display gradually hooks around in a 180 degree arc yet the aircraft never turns.

Thanks so much for creating and sharing this educational and entertaining video. Great job.

Thanks for another great video Simon. I live in the Channel Islands and there's a small island called Brecqhou just off of Sark. Owned by the reclusive Barclay brothers (only one now) the airspace again is prohibited. Would be a great video - you can see their pink castle from the coast of Sark and they tried interfering with many a local election.

I’d like to add Area 51 to the list. Watching a flight radar app of the arrivals and departures in Vegas is very telling of the lengths they must go to in order to avoid getting close enough to be seen. Vegas also has a ghost airline that shuttles employees directly to Area 51.

North Sentinel Island 🏝 too No matter how high you are and of course - All BUT 1 route crossing Point Nemo in the South Pacific Ocean 🌊

Mecca looks like the worlds biggest skating rink, that kind of seems like fun. I wonder if they have carnival food there, that would be awesome

Another great video and content from Simon. Excellent research from you and your team. 🇦🇺 😊

I've been to Florida a lot and I've never noticed that Disney have restricted airspace over their land..... which, in and around Orlando, is absolutely enormous by the way. This must be a right pain in the ar*e for civil aviation as the 2 main airports, Orlando and Sandford, are pretty close to the main tourist area.

Very cool video! Especially over Antarctica and the North Pole!

I saw a shuttle launch from Disney World.

The North Pole. Flights between North America and Asia will often fly close to the North Pole but never over to avoid navigation issues with magnetic instruments. Early versions of the 777 had a software bug which would confuse the navigation system. (what is the longitude?) I assume the same holds true for the South Pole.

While not directly over the Tibetan plateau my flight from Hong Kong to Zurich was my most shaky ever especially over western China. I remember telling the gorgeous flight attendant “shaky flight” her laughing it off saying “buckle up”, and the Swiss guy next to me saying “if it weren’t shaky it would be boring “

Machu Picchu is in a cloud rainforest, so I definitely understand no air flight…one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to❤️

A video on Alaska airlines piece ripping off and other disasters such as that would be interesting!!

I can't unsee it now

Writer definitely threw in some shade over working christmas eve with that "sleigh headed for japan" comment 🤣🤣🤣

Fun fact... Disney world had an airport at one time. The runway and buildings are still there and used for storage.

Thank you for this incredible list of places I am immediately going to fly over in Flight Simulator.

Thumbs up well earned for the closing "...because it's not a real thing." Too Right !

I heard some things about the South Atlantic Anomaly: one of the most important features of the Earth's magnetic field. An area where the Earth's inner Van Allen radiation belt comes closest to the Earth's surface and where it affects the electronics aboard orbiting satellites and spacecraft. The South Atlantic Anomaly also affects aircraft computer systems and is the main reason flight paths divert around that area.

As an American who lived in Southern California for about 15 years, I’ve been to Disneyland about 15 times. I went back once as a high school freshman because I happened to go to Anaheim on a bowling tournament trip. The last time I was there was kind of random as I went to meet my dad who was at an automotive convention nearby. We walked over from his hotel room after dinner and hung out for a couple hours. Haven’t been back in over 20 years at this point 🤷‍♀️

Haha, i love going through turbulence. Its always been fun to me. Had a laughable moment once... where the guy across from me, had just cracked open a can of beer. His entire beer, zero gravitied out of the can... and went right into his face. Upon reaching the bottom of the drop, it splashed down hard all across his lap. That man was SOAKED. I was dying of laughter. 😅😂

With Tibet, there are a few more reasons. If you have an emergency you don't have many options for a place to land. Not just airports, there are none, but not even long enough and flat enough places. If you are somehow able to make it to the ground without dying the place is very sparsely populated, as well as very rugged, so you're going to have a hard time walking back to civilization. It's so big that it's going to take a long time for anyone to find you - in the best conditions - but since the elevation is so high helicopters don't work very well, making it that much harder to find anyone.

There must be an exception to the stadiums restriction for Seattle. The approach for runway 16R puts aircraft almost directly above both stadiums in Seattle.

Awesome video ❤❤

Thanks Simon

Satellites (Airbus credited Google images) don't appear to have a problem flying over Mecca.

Love the last line.

This was interesting! I like this one!

In terms of restricted airspace around stadiums...are there waivers for various stadiums? San Diego's famous low approach over the skyline seems like it wouldn't be 3 KM (about 1.8 miles for Americans) from the stadium, as an example (looking at approaches on FlightAware now, and struggling to get them to more than 1.5 miles from Petco). Another great example for me, since it involves additional restricted airspace, is Nationals Park, which from what I can gather is about 1.6 miles, just shy of 3 KM, from the north end of 1/19, which is the most commonly used runway at that airport (either takeoffs or landings are going to/coming from NNE, putting them the 1.6 miles from the stadium and under 3,000 feet altitude, on most days). In that case, the planes can't really move because they have to bounce around the restricted airspace for the National Mall and the Pentagon.

my favorite thing about the bermuda triangle is seeing maps of all of the incidents linked to it. so many of them aren't even in the bermuda triangle or barely graze it.

NK clips like the one at 11:37 make me laugh they way they pose it like an aciton movie starring Kim Jong Un. 11:41 "Shit, guys hurry, we're going to be late!"

My house is so remote planes don't even fly over. It's not closed or anything, just not any kind of flight route. Except for one thing! Every few weeks a fleet of military helicopters buzzes past! I can look at flight radar online and there is never anything anywhere near me, and the military doesn't show up! If you draw a line from the whitehouse to 3 different large military bases, they all go over my house. I wonder who's getting the free VIP rides?

The drone show was awesome, definitely recommend

Why is the door open next to you ?

I'm just glad to make it all the way through with no ads 😀

Mecca is such a religious icon that they turned it into a theme park.

I flew into Tibet from Nepal in 2007. There may not be many planes flying there but I definitely was on one and they definitely have an airport.

One thing worth mentioning is that most oceans have 'no fly' zones for safety, if you look at the Europe - N America flight paths you will see they head over the North Atlantic rather than straight to the US. This is because in the event of an emergeny it is better to divert to Iceland, Greenland or Canada which involve shorter flight times. Some of the 'no fly' zones mentioned aren't no fly zones, they are simply minimum heights to be maintained, this is for a good reason - gliding in the event of engine failure. For many years microlights were prohibited from flying over populated areas because of this. Helicopters are exempt as autorotation is mainly vertical without the need for a horizontal roll out on landing. UK airstrips have a minimum altitude for passing over them to avoid conflict with traffic taking off or landing and airports have strict approach and departure corridors as well.

Nice content 👌

Simon doing Keeps promos. Good stuff. My gf and I listen to his syrupy voice every night going to sleep. Oh makes me wish it was bed time

Haha! I went to the San Diego Zoo not long ago, and they have a pair of Andean bear cubs. They were adorable!

Love your work brother, sending regards from Australia 🇦🇺

Plenty of planes fly between China and Pakistan over here Himalaya mountains. It’s a major flight route.

i actually didnt know about tibet, but that does make sense

Was it intentional that you featured a Wizz Air plane performing a low altitude flyby over the Danube and 30 seconds later mentioned Budapest as one of the capital cities with prohibited air space 🤔

Great video ❤

When young in the early 80s a SR71 flew over The Blue Jays stadium in Toronto Canada when I was there.

First time I heard Simon was the fake restaurant episode that had good reviews despite not existing. Such great delivery of material. Thank you.

What a mic drop! 14:44

The flight restricted zone (FRZ) is 15nm from DC, and the special flight rules are (SFRA) is 30nm. Not 50 and 50.

Hey at 4:53 you are talking about Washington DC but the airport shown is actually San Diego. You can tell on the right side of the runway there is a taxiway that says C3, DCA doesn’t have a C3 taxiway. Also might notice there are palm trees on the ridge past the runway. Other than that great vid.

8:15 That image must have been taken from a drone or a manned aircraft. 10:17 North Korea looks just like Machu Pichu!

In before the flat earthers claiming that you will get shot down if you try to fly over Antarctica.

Planes don’t fly in the basement that Simons keeping his slaves, I mean writers!

You should do a video on DARPA’s weirdest projects. Flesh eating robots, bullets that travel around corners, etc.

North Korea sure looks a lot like Machu Picchu in the title card. :^)

Simon is vicious: making Kevin write a script on Xmas eve.

There is commercial flights over Antarctica, but they are scenic flights to see the place so going there specifically. Qantas does it, not sure if Air NZ still does after the crash.

The deep space communication complexes (Goldstone, CA, USA; Canberra, Australia; and Madrid, Spain) have to clear airspace before transmitting, at least to the Voyagers. Something about the concentrated power coming off the 230-foot dish antennas when they do.

The day that Disney bricks up their no fly zone with SAM turrets and CWIS is soon

13:42 The Clear Air Turbulence is also the name of a 100 meter Hronish* assault craft from the book Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks. *maybe incorrect spelling.

I've noticed podcast from many of years and now you're making statements in the world through war and this and that I'm glad to see you make these statements against water and this and that so we know exactly who you are

All us UK geezers should be asleep right now, but instead, we are early to the upload and furthermore procrastinating from the horizontal life pause.

Disney World still puts on a real fireworks show. They may use drones somewhere, but late last year when my daughter and her family went, they sent back video of a killer fireworks show put on by the park.

In Orlando, the international airport is southeast of town. Disney and all the other parks are 10 miles away in the southwest area of the town. ATC wants to keep people from the north-south runways of MCO, but you have that fucking Orlando Executive airport about four miles north of MCO, which creates nothing but problems. On approach, you have to pass that airport at 2500 feet, but now you are above the glideslope for MCO and you need to get down quick.

7:30 NO! Helicopters don't have propellers, they have _rotors;_ usually a main rotor and a tail rotor, but there are variations.

90 percent is a stretch I know people including myself in Milwaukee that never even new about this place to we grew up and still never been there and I been to Florida several times

It’s not unusual here in Florida to be routed through the Disney TFR by air traffic control. I think they are more annoyed by it than pilots are.

my family & i got space on a military plane flying over the Andes in '70 Quito to Asuncion or Lima not sure I was six (dad was a diplomat) we damn near went down, one of the engines went out and we had to turn around since we could not make altitude and then a storm blew in. Mom never did like flying after that

what about Bermuda Triangle ? after I put it you said it at the end

Actually Simon planes don't fly over Antarctica because they might go over the ice wall and discover what's on the other side 😂😂

So I was on my first flight to Asia and my flight path went right over north Korea. I was both nervous and excited to see it. Then I noticed it started turning as we got near. I was disappointed, as I was hoping to get a glimpse of this secretive country, even if it was from the air.

I'm glad you added the bit at the end about the Bermuda Triangle not being real.Charles Berlitz is the only reason it 'exists'.

Oh, oh, now do "Places On Planes Where Earth Won't Fly."

Random finding, actually used footage from Eliches in Denver? Never would have expected seeing such a small insignificant place would be shown globally

When I first read the title, my mind went to weird physics, then Simon elaborated and I was like, "oh, yeah. That makes more sense...."

last time I was this early, planes didn't exist

How many channels does this guy have? Jeez!

14:54 The Bermuda Triangle exists, it just doesn’t have the a higher risk of wreckage or disappearance than other areas of navigable water and air.

Please keep making fun of Alabama too because I am from here and your depiction is spot on mate

My first thought is there are places ( like the vatican) where they don't want first re sponders looking around or digging through debris.