{"id":436554,"date":"2026-10-24T05:36:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T05:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436554\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T05:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T05:36:48","slug":"it-does-get-busy-temporary-flight-restriction-expected-to-increase-air-traffic-at-witham-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/436554\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It does get busy’: Temporary flight restriction expected to increase air traffic at Witham Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Angela<\/a>STUART, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n

Witham Field in Martin County is expected to experience increased air traffic as a temporary flight restriction, or TFR, is in effect in South Florida until 6 p.m. Saturday. <\/p>\n

Residents like Scott Seeley and Richard Lardizzone, near the airport, are familiar with the sound of jets and are aware that the restriction could bring more air traffic to the area tonight and this weekend. <\/p>\n

“When Donald Trump comes to town, yes, it does get busy, because a lot of people come through here, rather than go to Vero or St. Lucie,” Seeley said. <\/p>\n

JET NOISE: Some neighbors near Stuart’s Whitham Field Airport concerned about Mar-a-Lago flight restrictions<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew McBean, the airport director, said Witham Field is the first airport north of the 30-mile restricted area, which is why some flights may be diverted there. <\/p>\n

He also explained that the local airport has no control over the TFR because airspace rules are federally regulated. Still, some residents are not looking forward to the increased activity. <\/p>\n

“Noisy, really bad, I mean, you can’t sleep,” Lardizzone said. <\/p>\n

Airport officials are continuing efforts to educate pilots about the airport’s voluntary nighttime curfew. <\/p>\n

“We’re still getting complaints. Yes. In the month of September, we recorded one noise call. Anytime we get any sort of noise calls, we follow up with a letter to the pilots that operated during the curfew. And for the month of September, we sent 20 letters total to curfew operators to educate them about the curfew and that they’re in a densely populated area,” McBean said. <\/p>\n

Deep Dive: WPBF 25 News Investigates<\/a><\/p>\n

He added that the compliance rate for the curfew is nearly 97%. <\/p>\n

“A lot of the pilots follow the standard instrument departure routes or the visual departure routes where they can. So yes, we do see a lot of compliance with our voluntary nighttime curfew,” McBean said. <\/p>\n

McBean also reminded the public that the increase in air traffic is temporary. <\/p>\n

“It is a temporary flight restriction. And once that temporary flight restriction lifts, a lot of that flight activity returns to where they came from,” McBean said.<\/p>\n

Stay up-to-date: The latest headlines and weather from WPBF 25<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. \u2014 Witham Field in Martin County is expected to experience increased air traffic as a temporary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[20804,6731,67820,77897,1736,170956,9099,170959,18446,171,173,172,170957,22815,86786,170958,170955,189],"class_list":["post-436554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-air-traffic","tag-airport","tag-curfew","tag-jet","tag-lot","tag-mcbean","tag-month","tag-noise-call","tag-pilot","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-scott-seeley","tag-temporary-flight-restriction","tag-tfr","tag-voluntary-nighttime-curfew","tag-witham-field","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}