MYFOXNY.COM - There were reports of buildings evacuated in Lower Manhattan after a commercial-sized jet was seen circling the city with two fighter jets following it.
It turns out, the planes were part of a planned photo shoot.
Watch the video footage, left, of the jets over Lower Manhattan.
The FAA said planes circling Lower Manhattan were part of “photo op.” Spokesman Jim Peters told the Wall Street Journal that the Defense Department was conducting a photo shoot that involved two F-16s escorting a Boeing 747 in the vicinity of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. He said the maneuver is not an emergency and was coordinated in advance with the FAA and state and local officials. But the Port Authority told the WSJ that it was not notified of the event.
A man emailed MyFoxNY.com saying his wife and her co-workers at Goldman Sachs in Jersey City were evacuted because of the planes.
Another Web site viewer had emailed MyFoxNY.com that they has seen a flight being escorted by a fighter jet from the window of their Staten Island home.
The Staten Island Advance said that eyewitnesses said the plane appeared to be Air Force One.
Related articles: April 27th, 2009 in Breaking News Pentagon was insensitive and showed poor judgement over NYC flyover - Poor judgement or deliberate?
Plane stupid: Mayor Bloomberg outraged over military photo-op involving low-flying presidential jet.
Plane stupid: Mayor Bloomberg outraged over military photo-op involving low-flying presidential jet
By Frank Lombardi and Corky Siemaszko
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Mayor Bloomberg went ballistic Monday after the U.S. military - without any warning to the public - buzzed New York City with one of the presidential planes trailed by an F-16 fighter jet.
Flying in as low as 1000 feet to 150 feet above New York City and taking photographs along the way, the planes circled the Statue of Liberty and flew over Manhattan, Staten Island, and New Jersey - then vanished.
Before they were gone, hundreds of frightened people had jammed the emergency lines, thousands of terrified people evacuated from buildings in the city and across the river in Jersey, and many New Yorkers had flashbacks to the 9/11 attacks.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” said Eunice Davis, 41, of Brooklyn, who was evacuated from the New York Mercantile Exchange. “Some planes were circling the building. I was afraid. I was here when the World Trade Center went down.”
“We thought we were under attack again,” added a shaken Wall Street worker, who declined to give his name.
Angry that an unnamed but “dumb” city official failed to notify him of the Pentagon’s plans, Bloomberg said a flyover so close to Ground Zero was insensitive and showed “poor judgement.”
He said the first he knew of it was when his BlackBerry began buzzing.
It “defies the imagination,” said Bloomberg, who insisted he would have tried to stop the shoot had he known about it.
The NYPD confirmed that it had been told of the Pentagon’s “aerial photo mission” last Thursday but ordered to stay quiet about it.
Sen. Chuck Schumer called the whole incident “absolutely outrageous and appalling.”
“To think that the FAA would plan such a photo shoot and not warn the public, knowing full well that New Yorkers still have the vivid memory of 9/11 etched in their minds,” he said.
“In New York, of all places, to not warn the public that one of the largest jets in the county tailed
by a fighter jet is going to fly low over their communities defies logic and borders on simply being cruel.”
Asked about the incident, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said only, “I have no information beyond what I saw” on news reports.
The flyover was staged by the people whose job it is to protect us from terrorist attacks.
The bigger plane was one of the customized Boeing 747s that serve as Air Force One when the President is aboard. President Obama was not on the flight.
“This was a planned, pre-approved military flight over New York to take photos,” said FAA spokesman Jim Peters. “It was pre-coordinated with everyone involved, including the city.”
The planes flew back to Andrews Air Foce Base in Maryland after scaring New York.
FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic April 29th, 2009 in 911 Conspiracy, Breaking News, The Elite
FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic - wcbstv.com.
Threatened Federal Sanctions Against NYPD, Secret Service, FBI & Mayor’s Office If Secret Ever Got Out
Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.
In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration’s James Johnston said the agency was aware of “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes” in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.
“To say that it should not be made public knowing that it might scare people it’s just confounding,” Sen. Charles Schumer said. “It’s what gives Washington and government a bad name. It’s sheer stupidity.”
The flyover — apparently ordered by the White House Office of Military Affairs so it would have souvenir photos of Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty in the background — had President Obama seeing red. He ordered a probe and apologized.
“It was a mistake. It will never happen again,” President Obama said.
The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay.
“Did it show an insensitivity to the psychic wounds New York City has after 9/11? Absolutely. No questions about it. It was quite insensitive,” Kelly said.
The cost of the frivolous flight was about $60,000 an hour and that was just for Air Force One. That doesn’t include the cost of the two F-16s that came along.
The mayoral aide who neglected to tell Mayor Michael Bloomberg about it was reprimanded.
