Plane Truth

Someone in the U.S. government evidently decided this would be a good time to stage a photo-op using a low flying presidential 747 and a fighter jet. And where to do this? Well, why not over New York city?

The result was panic in lower Manhattan yesterday. Skyscrapers on both sides of the Hudson River were evacuated and frantic callers flooded 911 lines. Even Wall Street took a temporary hit. This is an understandable reaction for a city still raw over the September 11th attacks.

Part of the problem was that the FAA, in its eternal wisdom, decided that for security reasons only a limited number of agencies were to be notified of the event ahead of time. Consequently the public wasn't expecting it.

The purpose of the fly-by of the Statue of Liberty was to update stock photos of Air Force One. The old one had the plane flying over Mount Rushmore, so why not do one of the presidential jet flying by Lady Liberty?

Evidently whoever thought this up has never heard of Photoshop.

Anyway, it should be noted that President Obama was not on the plane, nor did he know about the fly-by beforehand. The White House issued an apology later in the day.