A jumbo jetliner that serves as Air Force One, escorted by a military jet, flew over Lower Manhattan Monday morning, frightening office workers and causing evacuations in what turned out to be a publicity operation approved by a unit of the U.S. Air Force.
Louis Caldera, Director of the White House Military Office, took responsibility for the incident, saying he approved the “mission” last week. “Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,” he said, “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”
He provided no details on the purpose of the flight. At around 10 a.m. EDT, a Boeing 747 was seen accompanied by an F-16 fighter jet flying low over the southern tip of Manhattan and at one point seen circling the Goldman Sachs Tower in nearby Jersey City, N.J.
The circling planes were part of a “photo op,” a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
The larger plane was one of two highly customized Boeing 747-200 series aircraft that serve as Air Force One when the commander in chief is on board. Technically, “Air Force One” is the call sign of any Air Force aircraft carrying the president. But President Barack Obama wasn’t aboard the plane Monday. “I’m annoyed — furious is a better word — that I wasn’t told,” Mr. Bloomberg said, calling the photo opportunity “ill considered” and “badly conceived.” He added that the federal government’s decision to stage such an event near the World Trade Center “defies good judgment.” He added that if he had known about the decision he would have worked to get it reversed.
The low-flying 747 sent workers worried about a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks fleeing their offices in the New York City area.
Traders bolted from the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange after seeing the jets. The exchange, which sits on the east bank of the Hudson River in Lower Manhattan and is blocks from the site of the terrorist-destroyed World Trade Center, didn’t order an evacuation.
People trading oil, natural gas and other commodities on the Nymex floor apparently took no chances. A Nymex security official was “literally standing, holding his hands up in a calming gesture. Guys were running right past him,” said Pete Donovan, a vice president at Vantage Trading in the crude-futures ring.
But several buildings in the area were ordered evacuated, although workers quickly returned after it became clear that the flyover was a planned event. Construction workers fled the 43-story headquarters for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., currently under construction across the street from the trade center site. Gia Moron, a spokeswoman for Goldman, one of the largest businesses in Lower Manhattan, said: “We did not receive a heads up. Our security officers were advised after it happened.”
Wow, what an incredibly stupid thing to do. I’ll bet the people in Goldman Sachs Tower were cleaning out their pants. Heads should definitely roll on this one.
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i don’t see the big deal.. the past 3-4
months we’ve had the white planes flying
between 1500-10,000 feet criss-crossing
all over the place, chem-trailing the *crap
out of the skies and nobody notices, says a peep
or thinks the resultant white haze is odd,
yet one plane at fly flowing at low speed and altitude, is cause for alarm?
when the winds shift, we have low flying commercial jets out all over the place flying
alternate or uncommon routes
i called three friends that live in Battery Park
and Chelsea and none of them knew of any “alarm” or evacuation, nor did the local news produce any crowd scenes..
whole lotta nothing if you ask me.
BOO!!!
Gotta make sure to keep people scared of the boogeyman at all times.
Assholes…
When Bush was president, it was commonplace for mainstream media to give voices to people extremely critical of him, but I only saw him do something stupid every few weeks. These days it seems Obama does something moronic nearly every day, but the media by and large worships him. I can’t even imagine what we would have heard if Bush had wasted our resources on a stunt like this, right after giving the queen of England gifts from the white house gift shop, and bowing to a king.
#37, you’ve got a point.
It seems that Bush’s faux pas happened every few weeks or so, and mostly due to his incredible lack of oratory finesse.
Obama, on the other hand, does seem to be fast and furious on the faux pas front.
Then again, Obama hasn’t started any WARS that I know of…
I hate Obama, but where in any of the reporting does it say he made the decision to do this? I find that impossible to believe.
I just ask if anyone would have doubted for a second that Bush had made the decision….and if the answer was no, everyone would scream that the “Buck stops there”.
But you watch, everyone BUT Obama will be blamed.
Actually, it sounds to me like the US military is out to sabotage the administration, by planning bone headed PR disasters like this. Using the President’s personal plane. As if to implicate Obama as being part of this. But trust me, I’m sure he’s way smarter than that. And wouldn’t have OK’d it, if he were asked. But I doubt he was even part of the decision process. It was probably labeled as part of a recruitment drive. Like most other military “air shows” are.
A few years ago an F117 was diverted from its flight plan, to fly over a section of Baltimore, during some event. As a PR stunt. But one of its wings disintegrated, and the plane crashed into a house. I seriously doubt that Bush planned the appearance of the fighter. The military is solely responsible for how it wastes taxpayers’ money on these stunts. Which is why I’m wondering if they aren’t out to screw Obama, by using one of his personal air transports, in such a crude matter. And only “informing” local authorities a bit late.
It’s not the military, nor the FAA, nor the Air Traffic Controllers fault.
Yup, the Bamster has to take the heat on this one.
Check out the Washington Post April 28, 2009 edition:
2nd paragraph
“The White House later issued a profuse apology over the incident.”
#41, benson,
The part you failed to mention is that the FAA insisted that this be done secretly. The White House Liaison should never agreed to that stipulation.
In reality, this is a waste of money to do the photo-op. There are easier ways to do it. Photoshop being one. The bigger question would be why do they need to have publicity pictures at all?
#39, it seems Obama might not have made this decision. Another tidbit of information that came out yesterday on NBC Nightly News and other outlets, that none of these people on here are mentioning, is that this White House FAA official or whatever he is, was called IMMEDIATELY into an already going on private meeting room once Obama heard what was going on, and from what people heard from outside, it was NOT a pleasant experience. The person was severely raked over the coals for such stupidity.
I’m thoroughly amazed that none of these dumb fuck New Yorkers knows what “Air Force One” (A.K.A. SAM 28000 or 29000) looks like. WTF, do they think someone else flies around with a big ass Presidential seal on a 747 fuselage with the the words United States of America prominently displayed on the side.
Don’t you hate it when the Overlords just taunt you for the fun of it?
“It Obama’s fault !”
“No it’s not !”
Who cares !!
A communications screw up for sure. Not cool.
Turns out folks are still scared it can/will happen again and that the years of inconveniencing the global air traveling public with goofy security measures designed to give people the illusion of safety hasn’t really worked after all.
Peace.
/T.
bobbo…an appropriate song, from ’56.
why isn’t Louis Caldera getting fired?
Seems as NYC officials knew of the fly over weeks ago and all protocol was followed by the Whitehouse official.
Turns out that GOP Billionaire Bloomberg was uninformed because the situation called for a decision.
LOL! Gia MORON, spokesperson for Goldman Sachs. How appropriate…
Two words: absolute morons.
# 40 Glenn E. said, “Actually, it sounds to me like the US military is out to sabotage the administration, ”
ROFLMAO!
Have to add this to the growing tinfoil hat excuses being made up for O’Mama.
The next bone headed move? Underground blast testing in CA. LOL
“Wow, what an incredibly stupid thing to do. I’ll bet the people in Goldman Sachs Tower were cleaning out their pants. Heads should definitely roll on this one.” /// I disagree. The time is well past for normalcy to return – – otherwise the terrorist and Alfie have won.
Whooda thunk Dvorak’s blog would draw so many who have time to type but no time to read or absorb and perceive?
Survey Says the “scare force one”
story is a scripted news bullshit story
i spoke to the reverend this morning at
St Paul’s church (213 broadway – in WTC’s
backyard, -few blocks from NYSE) and he said he saw the plane on the news but knew of no
evacuation nor anyone being scared.
-further, i called a trading client who was at works at WJ Dowed (Broad street area) and he only heard about it after seeing on the news..no evacuation, alert/scar whatever for him either.
i still cant find any video of the supposed 1000+ people being evacuated…to where?????
someone link me a vid and i’ll eat my hat & shutup.
imho, other than the flyby, i’m thinking this story pegs the bullshit meter.
only use: to add the tension level of the flu nonsense… i don’t see a “pandemic” alert from the 900k+ deaths from cardiovascular disease every year..???
bah…be scared, be very scared..we need to sell newspapers..
-s
Prez Oblahblah would’ve felt a little funny had AF1 gotten painted with a targeting radar with a strong missile lock. “Well, the stupid bastard shoulda cleared it with the NYC Air Defense Command Center. Sh*t happened, President Biden.”
A glamor shot style photograph for Air Force One…tastefully done of course.
What a waste of the tax payers’ money…
#58, Soundwash,
I think you are pretty close to what happened. I believe the scare was more a “OK everyone, get scared, cry a little, and evacuate. The building, not your bowels you FOX SPEWS idiots !!!”
But there was still no reason for the secrecy nor the cost of the photo-op.
So we have two excuses now for the O’Mama admin. The military is conspiring against him & Foxnews made him do it.
Brilliant!
I’ve come to learn this is a ploy by the Obama administration for the republicans to have something to bitch about and hence stay out of the way of the real issues.
The people in the Goldman Sachs building should not have been scared. Certainly they should know themselves that GS didn’t authorize any terrorist strikes that day.
C’mon guys, doesn’t the left hand know the right?
The plane caused many people to evacuate, and some even left buildings too.
Yeah, and apparently Obama is “furious” after he approved the decision. Aren’t we tougher as a nation to deal with potential calamities such as this? A low flying plane is nothing more than a low flying mosquito in Iraq.
I read that people were panicking and crying. Hmmm, that’s just how we want the rest of the world to perceive us… a bunch of pussies. Wonderful.