sonic21
04-27-2009, 06:44 PM
Low-flying planes cause New York City scare (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30435336/?GT1=43001)
http://mobile.chicagotribune.com/inf/imgc;JSESSIONID=B7713D50D4FB5D889E6E.2126?dev=1664&url=http://snsimages.tribune.com/media/photo/2009-04/46535375.jpg
In this image taken with a cell phone, a Boeing 747 flies low over New York Harbor on Monday morning, followed by an F-16 chase plane.
NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is furious that the federal government flew a presidential Boeing 747 and a fighter jet near ground zero part of a government photo opportunity and training mission.
The incident on Monday caused a brief panic among workers, who said they were not notified in advance.
Bloomberg said the flyover so near the World Trade Center site showed "poor judgment" and was insensitive. He said he is furious that the New York Police Department and another city agency were notified last week, but did not tell him.
If he had known, Bloomberg said, he would have tried to stop it.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force say the flight was a government photo opportunity and training mission involving a presidential plane.
The White House staffer who organized the photo session apologized, but not before locals and an influential senator raised their voices.
Worried workers from several office buildings poured out onto the streets before they learned that the flights were harmless.
John Leitner, a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, said about 1,000 people "went into a total panic" and ran out of the building around 10 a.m. after seeing the planes whiz by their building, near the World Trade Center site.
"Apparently, nobody in the building was informed that this was going to happen," he said. "Everyone panicked, as you can certainly understand."
Later learned it was an exercise
He said the workers gathered along the Hudson River until a security officer with a bullhorn told them it was a planned exercise.
A reader who responded to msnbc.com's request for photos said: "Video? Picture? Who the heck had time for that?!?!?! We were all too busy getting the heck out of the building!
"A coworker, whose desk faces the window, all of a sudden had this huge jumbo jet in his face," wrote Jenny Espinosa. "This poor kid freaked. One woman who works in our building, and is pregnant, had a panic attack and almost collapsed."
"We remember all too well 911," he said. "There are so many people who work here who still suffer from PTS, and you schedule a photo-op/drill without letting people know? ... if it was 'nothing more than an photo-op/drill', then there are some heads which need to roll. Don't be surprised if these 1000's of people who were put through this trauma file a class action suit!"
FAA alerted, but not public
The Federal Aviation Administration said it had notified city law enforcement about the mission before it took place.
"The FAA and the presidential airlift group conducted an aerial photo mission" and training for crew members of the president's flying fleet, said Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Angela Webb. She declined to release any other information about the nature of the photos being taken.
'Authorized by the FAA'
She said the flight involved a VC-25, a Defense Department version of the 747 that is called Air Force One when the president is aboard, and an Air Force F-16 jet fighter. They flew over the upper New York Bay and Newark Bay between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
The NYPD said the flight "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 all inquiries to the FAA."
Webb did not know why the public wasn't notified ahead of time.
http://mobile.chicagotribune.com/inf/imgc;JSESSIONID=B7713D50D4FB5D889E6E.2126?dev=1664&url=http://snsimages.tribune.com/media/photo/2009-04/46535375.jpg
In this image taken with a cell phone, a Boeing 747 flies low over New York Harbor on Monday morning, followed by an F-16 chase plane.
NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is furious that the federal government flew a presidential Boeing 747 and a fighter jet near ground zero part of a government photo opportunity and training mission.
The incident on Monday caused a brief panic among workers, who said they were not notified in advance.
Bloomberg said the flyover so near the World Trade Center site showed "poor judgment" and was insensitive. He said he is furious that the New York Police Department and another city agency were notified last week, but did not tell him.
If he had known, Bloomberg said, he would have tried to stop it.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Force say the flight was a government photo opportunity and training mission involving a presidential plane.
The White House staffer who organized the photo session apologized, but not before locals and an influential senator raised their voices.
Worried workers from several office buildings poured out onto the streets before they learned that the flights were harmless.
John Leitner, a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, said about 1,000 people "went into a total panic" and ran out of the building around 10 a.m. after seeing the planes whiz by their building, near the World Trade Center site.
"Apparently, nobody in the building was informed that this was going to happen," he said. "Everyone panicked, as you can certainly understand."
Later learned it was an exercise
He said the workers gathered along the Hudson River until a security officer with a bullhorn told them it was a planned exercise.
A reader who responded to msnbc.com's request for photos said: "Video? Picture? Who the heck had time for that?!?!?! We were all too busy getting the heck out of the building!
"A coworker, whose desk faces the window, all of a sudden had this huge jumbo jet in his face," wrote Jenny Espinosa. "This poor kid freaked. One woman who works in our building, and is pregnant, had a panic attack and almost collapsed."
"We remember all too well 911," he said. "There are so many people who work here who still suffer from PTS, and you schedule a photo-op/drill without letting people know? ... if it was 'nothing more than an photo-op/drill', then there are some heads which need to roll. Don't be surprised if these 1000's of people who were put through this trauma file a class action suit!"
FAA alerted, but not public
The Federal Aviation Administration said it had notified city law enforcement about the mission before it took place.
"The FAA and the presidential airlift group conducted an aerial photo mission" and training for crew members of the president's flying fleet, said Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Angela Webb. She declined to release any other information about the nature of the photos being taken.
'Authorized by the FAA'
She said the flight involved a VC-25, a Defense Department version of the 747 that is called Air Force One when the president is aboard, and an Air Force F-16 jet fighter. They flew over the upper New York Bay and Newark Bay between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
The NYPD said the flight "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 all inquiries to the FAA."
Webb did not know why the public wasn't notified ahead of time.