DescentBB

F-16 Buzzes Lady Liberty, Puts City on Edge

By BRIAN THOMPSON

Updated 4:06 PM EDT, Mon, Apr 27, 2009


It wasn't even a drill. It was a photo op.

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.

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.

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"

tunnelcat wrote:I seriously doubt the President would concern himself with such a mundane item such as a photo op for Air Force One.