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How could they think this was a good idea?

by: Jason Springer

Mon Apr 27, 2009 at 07:17:50 PM EDT

Talk about a communication breakdown. Residents of NY and NJ got quite a scare today when buildings were evacuated as a 747 circled around the Statue of Liberty accompanied by a military escort. It turned out to be a photo shoot so they could get an updated photo of Air Force one. Here's the official story:

An FAA spokesman said the fly-over "was approved and coordinated with everyone," with notifications made to the New York City Police Department, the mayor's office, the New Jersey State Police, and other agencies.
However, a confidential security memo that went out last week by the FAA's Air Traffic System Operations Security office -- while acknowledging "the possibility of public concern regarding Department of Defense aircraft flying at low levels," instructed that all information about the flight be kept confidential, and not to be released to the public or media.
"The information in this document is considered FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY, and should only be shared with persons with a need to know," the memo declared.

The possibility of public concern? Seriously, that's all they thought there would be? Imagine the fear looking up to see this:

Photo by Chris Bernardo and found on the Hudson page of NJ.com.

I can't imagine the memories this must have evoked for people as they evacuated their buildings. Here's video of the plane flying over head as people run to get away:

Air Force Photo-Op Stupidity (Video by someone else) from James Young on Vimeo.

The sound of the plane is enough to turn my stomach and I'm seeing it hours after the fact knowing what went down. I'm sure there will be plenty of questions raised about the official explanation and how anyone thought this was a good idea. It is absolutely amazing to me that they wanted to fly a big airplane accompanied by military escort during mid morning and couldn't possibly imagine that people would be concerned at such a site to the point they needed to be notified. Because we've never had any problems or concerns with that before. Regardless, this was a great deal of trouble caused to get a good picture.

Jason Springer :: How could they think this was a good idea?

Tags: Jersey City, air force one photo op, (All Tags)

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How could they think this was a good idea? | 6 comments

Stupid and expensive (0.00 / 0)

Gas up a jumbo jet for a picture?

Then do it over New York City.

Sorry, someone's head should roll.

by: firstamend07 @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 00:10:20 AM UTC

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Photoshop (0.00 / 0)

Air Force One flying over the Statue of Liberty? I'm pretty sure I could throw that together in a few minutes with Photoshop.

by: DSDan @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 01:07:50 AM UTC

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Consider that P Shop (0.00 / 0)

was developed by the DOD for sat pic processing.

Irony.

Check out my 3 paragraph primer on Polywell Fusion.

by: FogerRox @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 02:22:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Its a shame so many still suffer (0.00 / 0)

PTSD from 9-11.

This was an airshow equivalent, I watched the vids, checked out pix, and saw no threatening behavoir, but... once that emotional trigger is pulled. flight response is guaranteed.

Check out my 3 paragraph primer on Polywell Fusion.

by: FogerRox @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 02:39:47 AM UTC

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uh huh (0.00 / 0)

i was living in queens and working in lower Manhattan during 9/11 and the months afterward. I distinctly remember when they reopened the airspace and counting the number of planes flying overhead as i was trying to sleep.

I am still acutely aware of unusual flight patterns. For example when they were searching for the woman who was buried in hamilton after her bf drove her back to nj after an "accident" i called the police department to ask why there were so many helicopters and low flying planes in the area.

by: zora01 @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 07:47:17 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Doesn't Ring True.... (0.00 / 0)

I doubt this was just a "photo op".

Clearly they didn't make a public announcement because a slow low flying plane would itself make a tempting target for the wrong people....my guess is that this was some kind of "real world" test.

I find it hard to conceive that the folks in charge could be so absolutely stupid that they didn't realize that this would terrify folks and that it would be a PR fiasco.....then again, anything's possible.

We live in a country where the NRA has control of our weapons policy, so any nutjob who's not certifiable can spend a couple of thousand bucks and buy the kind of guns that should only be available to the military in a warzone or good cops doing their job in a crisis.

None of this is news to the bad guys....it's just the general public that still doesn't get how much at risk we are due to lax gun control laws.

Juan wrote an excellent diary on this kind of threat.... http://www.bluejersey.com/show...

by: Nick Lento @ Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 13:27:32 PM UTC

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How could they think this was a good idea? | 6 comments