Plane photo-op sparks panic, outcry, apology
NEW YORK - A Boeing 747 and an F-16 supersonic fighter jet zoomed past the Lower Manhattan skyline in a flash just as the workday was beginning yesterday. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11.
NEW YORK - A Boeing 747 and an F-16 supersonic fighter jet zoomed past the Lower Manhattan skyline in a flash just as the workday was beginning yesterday. Within minutes, startled financial workers streamed out of their offices, fearing a nightmarish replay of Sept. 11.
For a half-hour, the two planes circled the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline near the World Trade Center site. Offices evacuated. Dispatchers were inundated with calls.
But the flyover was nothing but a photo op, apparently one of a series of flights to get pictures of the airliner - an Air Force One backup plane - in front of national landmarks.
It was carried out by the Defense Department with little warning, infuriating New York officials and putting the White House on the defensive. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had not known about it and called it "insensitive" to fly so near the site of the 2001 terror attacks.
Louis Caldera, director of the White House military office, took the blame, saying he had approved the mission last week.
"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," he said. "I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused."
President Obama was furious when told of the flight, a White House official said on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Federal officials would not say why the public and area building-security managers had not been notified, nor address why someone thought the flyover was a wise move.
An administration official said the purpose of the flyover was to update file photos of the president's plane near the Statue of Liberty. The official, who requested anonymity, said Caldera's office told the Federal Aviation Administration that it periodically updates file photos of Air Force One near national landmarks.
The photo op was combined with a training exercise to save money, said another administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The FAA notified the New York Police Department of the flyover. It had a classified footnote saying that information on it "shall not be released to the public or the media." NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said that typically a flight like this would be publicized to avoid causing a panic, but that police were under orders not to.
The FAA alerted an official in the mayor's office, but he didn't tell Bloomberg. That official, Marc Mugnos, did not immediately respond to questions on why he had not told the mayor. Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said Mugnos had been reprimanded.
