+1 happens all the time, and comes up in the news now and then. The infamous Clinton haircut at LAX comes to mind (which was actually a bunch of BS but made the national news).

I don't think that foreign dignitaries visiting here get the same treatment, but in their home countries it varies. When President Kagame flies out of Kigali, it seems like they shut everything within a mile of the airport down for hours.

Drat!

Get used to that.

We were once in holding pattern for over an hour near SFO when VIP was in town. I wonder what would happen if an aircraft went out of fuel while in unexpected holding pattern like this...

Got it. Now if only that would explain the delays we on LGA->ORD get every other time..

It's not unexpected by anyone in the cockpit, in the control tower, at dispatch, etc.

Complete contrast to when I stayed at a country house hotel in Ireland when the Irish president was staying (and this was pre peace in Ireland). A couple of security guards stroling around (and they were in the tv room at night watching rugby) but that was it. The president was coming down stairs as we (me quite pregnant) were going up and she said hello to us (my husband said she probably didn't know we weren't Irish and so thought there would be votes in it).

When Tony Blair was leader of the opposition he went to the same Catholic Church as we did and was just a regular member of the community. Chauffeur and better car (and some light security) in the run up to the election but the Sunday after he won the election was amazing - security crawling all over the church in advance and during the service plus tv cameras. But the most amazing thing was the reception he got at the end of mass when the priest said we can't let this occasion go by without congratulating Tony on his achievement and the whole church errupted in applause.

they even held up the DC Metro (subway) train once

there are a lot of nut houses that want to kill the pres of the usa. i live in dc. the motorcades shut down major roadways for them, and many other dignitaries almost every day. when bush was driven from dc to balt for some reason, they shut down i95 for 4 hrs. what you want, we can shoot everybody questionable, or we clear the roads. the air space clearing with jet plane or helicopter is minimal compared to the motorcade. if you will help clear out the gun nuts, the motorcade blockcages will drop a lot. there are a lot of people that want to kill this guy.

Longest delay for me was at CDG, when an expected one-hour delay became a near 4-hour delay. Turned out the issue was that Boris Yeltsen had attended a dinner with the French president the previous evening, and was running late for his return to Moscow (insert vodka joke here) :)

Another time I was at the entrance of the Vier Jahreszeiten hotel in Munich waiting for my car to be brought out by the valets. A black Mercedes S-Class came up, and the President of Estonia walked right by me, accompanied by a single aide. I was not asked to move, and there was no uniformed or "obvious" security.

The US Presidents in India messed up traffic more than the Indian Prime Minister visiting my acquaintances in India.

The US Secty of State visiting Sweden messed up traffic in Sweden more than the Swedish king or PM visiting around the same area in Sweden.

The Presidential motorcades in DC are less disruptive than the Presidential motorcades in other US cities -- it's been this way for decades.

Guns can't do much of anything against the current cars used most frequently for the President's movements in DC or elsewhere in the US for scheduled movements by surface vehicles even with just two block vehicles available with fully armed personnel.

Probably true that the first lady is included in the VIP TFR thing...

I'm speculating the TFR involving Karzai and Zardari was actually an event TFR for NATO summit not a VIP TFR. The event TFR's can be issued for security reasons for major events like the Super Bowl and political conventions etc.

Yep on the First Lady. I've been caught in motorcade stop for Nancy Reagan when she visited her mother in PHX back in the 80s.

Once got stuck in more-miserable-than-normal traffic from LGA into Manhattan because the president had landed at JFK, then took a motorcade to the UN during morning rush hour, which threw just about every bridge and tunnel into a mess.

Wouldn't it have been faster/easier/safer/less disruptive to just use a helicopter?

They would let the plane fall out of the sky, obviously...

During GWB's campaign in 2004, he made one stop at a Rep fundraiser in Irvine, so SNA was shut down for the duration that the Presidential 757 was on the tarmac... for about 3-4 hours, IIRC.

There was an inbound WN flight from SJC that had to go into a holding pattern, then land at one local area airport for refueling (BUR I believe), take off, then have to divert again to ONT for more refueling, then took off again, finally making it to SNA once AF1 took off.

And IIRC they didn't let any of the pax out to find their own way home.

Choppers can be shot down, and they probably didn't bring along Marine One + decoys. Mere military/civilian personnel and equipment haven't passed requisite checks.