Fucking Air Force One!!!???!!!

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ouizy

ouizy

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Did anyone else witness the debacle that happened in downtown NYC this morning?

I was standing on the top floor of a building in the financial district in Manhattan when a 747 flying no more than a few hundred feet off the ground came from the south straight towards us. When it was over the southern tip of Manhattan it took a HARD banked turn towards NJ and there was an F-16 fighter jet tailing it.

We thought it was a hijacked plane, but then it took two more loops and it was flying so low we saw it was painted like Air Force One.

The turns were too violent for Obama to have been on the flight, but we did not know what the hell they were doing.

Meanwhile they did this stunt about 5 blocks south of the WTC Ground Zero site. It was absolutely ridiculous and a bunch of buildings in NYC and Jersey City were evacuated.

The planes basically did a very low fly-by of downtown and then headed straight towards the Goldman Sachs building in Jersey City before climbing right in front of the structure.

The military apparently told the NYPD it was going to happen, but then ordered them to keep it silent (the mayor did not even know.)

This was fucking crazy and insensitive as many of the people who saw this witnessed 9/11 first hand as the WTC is in the same neightborhood.

Totally insane - did anyone else here see this?

Links below:


http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/air-force-one-backup-rattles-new-york-nerve/

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/04/27/2009-04-27_plane_stupid_mayor_bloomberg_outraged_over_military_photoop_involving_lowflying_.html

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04272009/news/regionalnews/obama_plane_photo_op_startles_new_yorker_166470.htm



air_force_one1.jpg
 
I am telling you at the angle at which the plane was turning I really cannot see how anyone on the plane was able to take a photo.

I am sure there were photographers on the ground shooting the planes, but it was totally crazy.
 
I wasn't downtown today, but some of my friends were. One of them said she nearly had a heart attack as a result of this "photo-op."

Whoever came up with this idea seems to have forgotten about 9/11.
 
I think we will just have to file this under the "no good deed goes unpunished".





Obama was just being kind
putting an unemployed pilot back to work.





bush-pilot.jpg
 
.
(NY Times)

As the fright wore off, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other local leaders questioned why the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered local officials, including the New York Police Department, not to alert the public in advance. An F.A.A. memo last week said information about the exercise “should only be shared with persons with a need to know” and “shall not be released to the public or the media.”

The breakdown of communication went deeper. Mr. Bloomberg said he first learned of the exercise when his BlackBerry started buzzing with messages from people asking if he knew what was going on. “First thing is, I’m annoyed — furious is a better word — that I wasn’t told,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo-op right around the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe defies imagination,” he said. “Had I known about it, I would have called them right away and asked them not to. It is the federal government, and they can do in the end what they please, but I would have tried to stop it.”

He said that the Police Department and an official in his administration — he did not say who — had not advised him of the exercise. White House and City Hall officials later said the notice had gone to the director of the city’s event coordination and management office, which handles permits for events like block parties, street fairs and parades. The director, Marc Mugnos, was formally reprimanded for failing to notify his superiors, said a senior city official, who was given anonymity because this was a personnel matter.

As the uproar reached Washington, dozens of officials at the White House, the Pentagon and the Department of Transportation rushed to find out who had authorized the flyover. The White House did not issue a statement, or a formal apology, for more than six hours. At first, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, dismissed questions, saying: “You might be surprised to know I don’t know of every movement of Air Force One or what happens to it.”

Later, aides told reporters that President Obama was furious about the flyover when it was brought to his attention. The White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, conveyed the president’s anger in a meeting with the director of the White House Military Office, Louis Caldera, who issued the apology. “Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,” Mr. Caldera 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.”

Neither the White House nor the F.A.A. explained why the mission was deemed a secret, even though officials conceded the primary purpose was picture taking. Other images of the plane, taken at picturesque sites like Mount Rushmore, are sold as souvenirs and used in promotional materials. Officials at the Department of Transportation and at the Pentagon each denied responsibility for the secrecy.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
jesus, someone really dropped the ball here. at the very least, citizens and workers in the area should've had ample warning. though really, this was just a bad call all around and shouldn't have been done in the first place, as everyone else has said. i really hope whoever signed off on this is fired. i can't even imagine what kind of trauma those who saw the plane went through today. all this for a supposed photo op (since you can't just photoshop a plane in or anything)!
 
classic dick move. it's a general courtesy to let people know you'll be flying a plane really low over places you don't normally do it. it's not like it only happens in america, i've seen similar stuff reported on in sydney (twice in the last few years, that i can remember!), and it's bound to happen everywhere. it's just an extra special dick move to do it to new york.
 
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