Giants dodge highly anticipated plane protest banners in Jaxson Dart’s debut. Here’s why

As it turned out, no airplane protest banners flew over MetLife Stadium before Sunday’s Giants game against the Chargers.

That’s because weather interfered with the operations of High Exposure Aerial Advertising, said Dave Dempsey, who owns the Woodbine-based company that flies the planes.

Two Giants protest banners were scheduled to fly Sunday before Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart makes his first NFL start. Tentative plans for a third never materialized.

So what happened?

Here’s what Dempsey told NJ Advance Media on Sunday morning: The two planes that were scheduled to fly Giants-related banners over MetLife Stadium got stuck in State College, Pennsylvania, where they worked the Oregon-Penn State game, because of poor weather.

Dempsey had two backup planes ready to go in Woodbine. They would fly north to Lakewood and pick up their banners en route to MetLife Stadium. But low clouds and poor visibility resulted in those planes not being able to take off from Woodbine.

“Can’t control Mother Nature,” Dempsey said. “Nature of the beast unfortunately.”

Two non-Giants banners did fly over MetLife Stadium on Sunday morning. One was operated by High Exposure.

Dempsey said that plane was able to fly because it was already stationed at Lakewood (along with its banner), where the weather was more favorable than in Woodbine.

It is unclear what one of the planned Giants protest banners would have read. The other was commissioned by Joshua Reynolds, a 16-year-old high school junior from Bergen County who used a GoFundMe campaign to raise money along with other angry Giants fans.

Reynolds told NJ Advance Media he will now send his banner up before the Nov. 2 home game against the 49ers, weather permitting. That is the Giants’ next afternoon home game after Sunday. They host the Eagles on Oct. 9, but that is a Thursday night matchup.

The banner was scheduled to target Giants co-owner John Mara and call for the firings of coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen. It was going to read: “MR MARA ENOUGH IS ENOUGH CLEAN HOUSE.”

Dempsey said that if any customer has a plane grounded by weather, the customer can reschedule or receive a refund.

Last season, the Giants saw two protest banners — one each at back-to-back December home games. Four others (three in Week 17 at home and one in Week 18 at the Eagles) were grounded due to poor weather.

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