Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli's imminent wedding has been long touted in local media as the "wedding of the year," but it reached new proportions of extravagant absurdity on Friday as the Civil Aviation Authority declared the area above the wedding a no-fly zone.
Refaeli (30) is set to tie the knot next Thursday with Israeli businessman Adi Ezra (40), heir to the giant food import company Neto ME Holdings, Ltd. She was married to Arik Weinstein in 2003 but divorced two years later, and then dated the famous Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio from 2006 to 2011.
The Civil Aviation Authority on Friday published orders to pilots and airlines, declaring the airspace over the Carmel forests where the wedding will take place as a no-fly zone during the wedding next Thursday from 5 p.m. until 2 a.m.
Apparently the photography company that is to document the luxurious wedding asked to close the airspace where a surveillance balloon is to be flying, in addition to two private planes and five miniature aircraft - apparently drones to be used in filming the extravaganza.
No less than four square kilometers (1.5 square miles) of land are included in the no-fly zone order up to a height of 3,000 feet.
One pilot who had planned to fly in the area at the time complained to Yedioth Aharonoth that "closing public air resources because of the request of a celeb who wants privacy is like closing the (busy Tel Aviv) Ayalon Highway because a celeb doesn't want one of the cars on the road to photograph him at home."
"Even if it's for security...the ones harmed by the matter are the public of pilots and the resources stolen are from the public. Either way, it really really stinks, and that's putting it mildly."
The Transportation Ministry stated that the decision was taken for security reasons due to the high number of aircraft flying in the area at the time.
"These are security guidelines carried out at times of operating unmanned aircraft," said the ministry in a statement. "The guidelines were published in accordance with the rules of the Civil Aviation Authority, and the principles fixed in the law."