And the Pentagon told local authorities about it, but said they couldn't share the information with the public.
An Air Force One lookalike and one and possibly two F-16s buzzed the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor this morning, halting work on nearby construction sites, causing resident and office workers to flee their high-rises and giving thousands of people in downtown Manhattan and New Jersey a major fright. At least two people were treated for minor injuries at Jersey City Medical Center after falling during the rush to exit their buildings.
\"Everybody panicked,\" said Daisy Cooper, a Merrill Lynch worker in Jersey City, who lost a nephew on 9/11. \"Everybody was screaming and we all ran downstairs. I'm devastated...Everybody was running, we didn't know why we were running. We just knew it was a plane, there we go, 9/11 again.\"
The Air Force One lookalike is a back up plane for the one used by the president. The plane is designated by the Defense Department as a VC-25 but is recognizable to the public as a Boeing 747.
The Federal Aviation Administration said there was no reason for alarm, even thousands of people saw the fighter jets circle the statue, along with a VC-25, and immediately thought the worst.
\"They were making two, maybe three passes,\" FAA spokesman Jim Peters told News 4 New York. \"The (Department of Defense) and the FAA worked this all out in advance.\"
A Pentagon official confirmed that while the Presidential Airlift Group, which is based out of Andrews Air Force Base, did inform the FAA and New York City officials about this morning's aerial photo op. But they also told both agencies not to inform the public about it. The NYPD confirmed this.
\"The flight of a VC-25 aircraft and F-16 fighters this morning was authorized by the FAA for the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it but to direct any inquiries to the FAA Air Traffic Security Coordinator,\" said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.
The FAA said it would issue a statement this afternoon as scared residents and workers fumed at the unnecessary flight fright.
\"It's completely asinine after 9/11 to do that,\" said Keith Mercantine, who witnessed the chaos in Jersey City. \"I saw ambulances out here with pregnant women.\"
No word on where the photo op will show up.
Did you see the F-16 and Air Force One back-up flying around lower Manhattan? Send us your pictures and videos here.
Well, maybe he didn't- but it wasn't exactly the most thoughtful or sensitive thing to do to New York City after its experience with 9/11. Imagine if Bush had done this goofy crap? What would people had said?
. "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"- Mao Zedong
Plane stupid: Mayor Bloomberg outraged over military photo-op involving low-flying presidential jet
By Frank Lombardi and Corky Siemaszko
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Monday, April 27th 2009, 2:54 PM
Mayor Bloomberg went ballistic Monday after the U.S. military - without any warning to the public - buzzed New York City with one of the presidential planes trailed by an F-16 fighter jet.
Flying in as low as 1000 feet to 150 feet above New York City and taking photographs along the way, the planes circled the Statue of Liberty and flew over Manhattan, Staten Island, and New Jersey - then vanished.
Before they were gone, hundreds of frightened people had jammed the emergency lines, thousands of terrified people evacuated from buildings in the city and across the river in Jersey, and many New Yorkers had flashbacks to the 9/11 attacks.
\"I didn't know what was going on,\" said Eunice Davis, 41, of Brooklyn, who was evacuated from the New York Mercantile Exchange. \"Some planes were circling the building. I was afraid. I was here when the World Trade Center went down.\"
\"We thought we were under attack again,\" added a shaken Wall Street worker, who declined to give his name.
Angry that an unnamed but \"dumb\" city official failed to notify him of the Pentagon's plans, Bloomberg said a flyover so close to Ground Zero was insensitive and showed \"poor judgement.\"
He said the first he knew of it was when his BlackBerry began buzzing.
It \"defies the imagination,\" said Bloomberg, who insisted he would have tried to stop the shoot had he known about it.
The NYPD confirmed that it had been told of the Pentagon's \"aerial photo mission\" last Thursday but ordered to stay quiet about it.
Sen. Chuck Schumer called the whole incident \"absolutely outrageous and appalling.\"
\"To think that the FAA would plan such a photo shoot and not warn the public, knowing full well that New Yorkers still have the vivid memory of 9/11 etched in their minds,\" he said.
\"In New York, of all places, to not warn the public that one of the largest jets in the county tailed
by a fighter jet is going to fly low over their communities defies logic and borders on simply being cruel.\"
Asked about the incident, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said only, \"I have no information beyond what I saw\" on news reports.
The flyover was staged by the people whose job it is to protect us from terrorist attacks.
The bigger plane was one of the customized Boeing 747s that serve as Air Force One when the President is aboard. President Obama was not on the flight.
\"This was a planned, pre-approved military flight over New York to take photos,\" said FAA spokesman Jim Peters. \"It was pre-coordinated with everyone involved, including the city.\"
The planes flew back to Andrews Air Foce Base in Maryland after scaring New York.
. "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"- Mao Zedong
You freakin' republicans, this was just a photo op, and no one should of been alarmed. We all know that with Obama in charge, there will be no terrorist attacks, unlike that one guy George W Bush![/democraticspin]
I don't know that I buy that that was just a practice flight. All of that top-secret informing ahead of time, but the public was not told? Not to mention the fact that at no point did anyone throw a stop and say, \"hey, this is a bad idea\".
I can't help but wonder if they were doing this for effect. Sounds a little out there, and maybe I just don't know how things work up there, but this doesn't add up in my opinion.
The flyover was organized by the Defense Department and ONLY the area New York Police Departments were notified, NOT the Mayor, for security reasons. Opps!
Apparently even Obama didn't know about it until AFTER the poop hit the fan and New Yorkers went into a frenzy. I seriously doubt the President would concern himself with such a mundane item such as a photo op for Air Force One.
Gooberman wrote:I am sure the president of the United States makes decisions on photo ops.
I could go and quote this or that source, but it would make this thread alot less fun I suppose.
"Mission Accomplished"
It has nothing to do with the President but somebody decided that buzzing Manhattan with a jumbo jet and a military fighter in close proximity was a good idea!?!?
I imagine every one there looked up and said "Oh ★■◆●!!! Here they come again!!!!"
tunnelcat wrote:I seriously doubt the President would concern himself with such a mundane item such as a photo op for Air Force One.
No, I wouldn't think he would. (I've got a running joke with my younger brothers and sisters that the mayor does everything in our town, and that all public property belongs directly to the mayor )
As far as I can tell it should be the fault of the folks directly in charge of Air Force One flights. I just have a hard time believing anyone in that high of a position could do something so foolish without realizing what they're doing, and even more so because it seems to be a long way from a spur-of-the-moment decision. Just something I might keep in the back of my mind.
I hope their damn photos were worth the trouble they caused for people.
1) The bored and brainless high up military idiot in charge of Air Force One thought it would be either COOL or GREAT PR to shoot pictures of Air Force One flying symbolically over New York and Washington DC (that was the next planned photo shoot) and FORGOT about 911 (yeah, sure)!
OR
2) That same idiot was pissed off at Obama for some reason and was trying to cause a HUGE ruckus and embarrassment for the Obama Administration.
I'm guessing it was number one. But neither reason is very charitable.
If I were Obama, I would FIRE the moron FOR taking his own initiative and NOT THINKING beforehand! Someone else he needs to fire is THIS bored idiot! Come on Obama, grow some bawls!
bawls? First he needs to be in his right mind, because he's not. Until that happens (not likely), I'd just as soon he was mediocre if every other way. Someone could say he showed some \"bawls\" when he asked the CEO of GM to resign, but it was an absolute tragedy for America, as far as I'm concerned.
GM very well may have needed a new CEO. I don't have any reason to doubt that. What I don't agree with is political leverage and popular/public opinion being used to gain control over the private sector, and I think that's what's happened/happening. It's should be nobodies business who is CEO of GM. But with our tax dollars bailing them out it sort of becomes the government's business... That's a classic example of giving the devil an inch, I would say.
\"Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.
In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration's James Johnston said the agency was aware of \"the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes\" in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor's office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.\"
Well, you know what, I'm sure security was warranted, but the answer, in light of the knowledge that it could very well cause panic is just not to do it. Period. Too bad.
