A bunch of people have emailed about employees being evacuated from Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, and the WSJ was previously all "run for your lives!" but apparently, according to an update, that "commercial-size jet seen flying low over Hudson River was part of scheduled test."
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the Defense Department is conducting a photo op that involves deploying two F-16s and escorting a Boeing 747 in the vicinity of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Mr. Peters says the maneuver was not an emergency and was coordinated in advance with the FAA and state and local officials. "They'll do two or three spins ... and be done by 10:30," Mr. Peters said.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:33AM
Pics or it didn't happen.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:38AM
What a bunch of morons. Genius, might have been a good idea to inform citizens of your "photo op" before you scared a bunch of people. I vaguely recall a tragedy involving planes down there about 8 years ago. Someone better be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dogsh** out of hong kong for this by tomorrow
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:38AM
What a tasteful idea for a photo op!
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:38AM
would have been nice to tell lower manhattan. .. on the positive side I did get to see the nice weather outside for a few minutes before the blaring "all is well" from building security
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:40AM
And what exactly is this phot op for that it was necessary to do this on a Monday morning during business hours and cause the eveacuation of office buildings because no prior warnings were given?? And how low does a 747 need to fly for a phot op anyway??
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:40AM
Money well spent
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:42AM
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/04/faa_says_lowflying_plane_over.html
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:43AM
Brilliant let's just scare the shit out of everyone in lower manhattan for a picture of Airforce One flying over NYC. Pretty tateless photo anyway given the events of 9/11.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:45AM
What the hell are they taking pictures of??? Why use Airforce One?? Is this a tourist flight for Obama's family??
Posted by AJ , Apr 27, 2009 10:45AM
Did they borrow Air Force One for that? It looks like it has the blue at the front
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:48AM
...it's Africa Force One now-adays. You'd bitches better recognize.
-POTUS Barry
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:50AM
i work right next to GS tower in JC. we just got back in the building. it would have saved a few of us some gray hairs if we had been alerted to the "photo op".
now i gotta go home and change my pants.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:51AM
just spraying us all with swine flu nothing to see here.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:51AM
thats like them making a movie about a virus and have guys in quarantine suits walk through mid town and not tell anyone
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:52AM
100-day commemoration flight for AF1.
'Misson Accomplished'
all hail the Obama
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:56AM
Taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty?
Right.
It was probably one of these planes.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/15/doomsday-plane.html
And I am sure they aren't going to tell everyone what they are actually doing (more than likely some sort of drill) -- but you don't bust out one of those for "taking pictures".
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:57AM
I wish I had an office building to evacuate.
Mercifully, though also in Lower Manhattan, I was too engrossed in my telenova to have Capt. Sully-ed my pants.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:57AM
I am surprised Obama did not have the F-16s strafing Wall Street. The congress and his Administration have done everything else they could to destroy the free markets.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:11AM
The plane flew right by my window here at work above Battery Park. But, there were no fighter jets following it until after it flew away from the city, just a small helicopter when it flew by my window. Normally, if there are going to be any planes flying down here at all the building sends out memo's to all offices DAYS in advance. Seems a bit fishy to me. The plane was within a few hundred feet of my building - you'd think they would have warned us if it was planned. People were running out of the buildings down here.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:12AM
"conducting a photo op" = movie shoot.
Looks like the USG has adopted one of Mayor Mike's revenue generating programs.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:16AM
This all seems a little fishier than the AIG bonus knundrum!
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:16AM
how much did all of this cost taxpayers? they are all idiots.....
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:18AM
Hmmm military manuevers...just like TWA Flight 800. I'd evacuate too!!
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:27AM
It wasn't a plane...it was a Flying Spaghetti Monster..
http://www.venganza.org/
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:33AM
@#1
Nice Top Gun reference
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:33AM
Permission to buzz the tower?
Negative Maverick, the pattern is full.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:39AM
Still trying to find where anybody confirms that the plane was AF1.
@9 and @15, can you give some confirmation?
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:43AM
"http://tinyurl.com/dhx86v "First Pic Of Hudson Scare Plane Posted On Twitter"'
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:54AM
CDC said they are spraying for swine flu.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 11:54AM
@27, http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/low-flying-planes-spotted-over-harbor/
I also saw it with my own eyes overfly Jersey City. Scared the crap out of me...
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:04PM
They used AF2 for the "photo op".
Posted by weeklyworldnews , Apr 27, 2009 12:04PM
Fishier than an AIG bonus?! hahaha!
I heard the mexicans were spreading it to the states?!
http://weeklyworldnews.com/mutants/7913/swine-flu-comes-to-america/
Posted by weeklyworldnews , Apr 27, 2009 12:05PM
Fishier than an AIG bonus?! haha that's great!
I heard the Mexicans were bringing it when they crossed the border. Time to get border control on it
http://weeklyworldnews.com/mutants/7913/swine-flu-comes-to-america/
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:07PM
I'm still blown away by the fact that this was done on a weekday. Probably just a product of gov officials not wanting to give up a day off.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:13PM
Hollywood can create an entire armageddon on film but the US military can't photo shop a plane by the Statue of Liberty?
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:17PM
"Makes sens?? Take a chill?? Obviously comments of people who don’t live in NYC and are not familiar with 9/11.
You don’t endanger the lives of tens of thousands of people to conduct a drill. I saw a pregnant women carried away and atleast a few elderly people being helped. I was on the Pier in Jersey City and I swore it would hit the Goldman building. If it was a planned drill a little common courtesy would have gone a long way here."
http://tinyurl.com/de3p7d
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:22PM
"I want some butts!" - The Air Boss
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:42PM
@27, All hail the Obama
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:43PM
@35 - classic
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:44PM
Imagine if it was G.W's who did this photo op and not the Great One.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:46PM
@40- yeah, it's not really fair that obama should get off for this, but the thing is, this is really his first fuck up so far. to get to gwb levels (of hate) he's got many more to go.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:54PM
Are you guys reading the comments? People aren't buying the explanation.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:57PM
Pretty sure I saw this in Fail-Safe.
"The matador, the matador . . . is me -- me!"
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 12:59PM
Apparently it is for a commercial promoting Obama's new book about his first 100 dats in office
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 1:05PM
@44 I blame Montel Williams.
Posted by sugardaddy , Apr 27, 2009 1:18PM
are those wackos that all believe 9/11 was a big setup going to jump all over this or did they find a new cause now that Bush is out of the WH?
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 1:18PM
Between this and the swine flu news I'm thinking about taking a very long summer vacation....
(the negatives of living in NYC are more than the positive, how do I short the city?)
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 1:30PM
@3 FTW
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 1:51PM
Defense Secretary Swenson: General Stark, are there any papers or documents in New York which are absolutely essential to the running of the United States? General Stark?
Gen. Stark: No sir. There are important documents, but none of them absolutely essential.
Admiral Wilcox: Will there be any warning given? A lot of lives could be saved if people had a few minutes.
Defense Secretary Swenson: On this short notice, an alert to a big city would do more harm than good. It only produces panic.
Admiral Wilcox: What about this?
[Wilcox tosses a newspaper onto the table, showing the First Lady in NYC, prominently featured on the main page. Swenson sees it, then gives the paper to General Stark]
Gen. Stark: Maybe... maybe he doesn't know his wife is there.
Defense Secretary Swenson: [shaking his head] He knows.
[Groeteschele finishes writing something onto some paper]
Prof. Groeteschele: Gentlemen, we are wasting time.
Prof. Groeteschele: [walking to the podium] I've been making a few rough calculations based on the effect of two twenty megaton bombs dropped on New York City in the middle of a normal workday. I estimate the immediate dead at about three million. I include in that figure those buried beneath the collapsed buildings. It would make no difference, Admiral Wilcox, whether they reached a shelter or not. They would die just the same. Add another million or two who will die within about five weeks. Now our immediate problem will be the joint one of fire control and excavation. Excavation not of the dead, the effort would be wasted there. But even though there are no irreplaceable government documents in the city, many of our largest corporations keep their records there. It will be necessary to... rescue as many of those records as we can. Our economy depends on this.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 3:11PM
Lawsuits???
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 3:20PM
these are the same idiots everyone wants to believe are also smart enough to conduct complex coordinated conspiracy operations.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 3:44PM
Who ever is responsible for this should be fired and a public apology should come from the Obama administration immediately.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 4:06PM
@12, 30, 36
The building may say GS, but c'mon- nobody really cares about NJ.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 4:21PM
Is this your idea of fun, Mav?
--Goose
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 4:24PM
@ 52 keep dreaming. Similar to what happened when Biden predicted an un-named "international crisis" or when Obama went on Leno and made fun of retarded people, the media will simply yawn, shrug and sweep this to the side.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 4:44PM
"The Government's Plane Scare Was A Felony" http://tinyurl.com/d382hx
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 5:00PM
Fireworks?! In the middle of midtown?! and it's *not* the 4th of July?
Shut it down!
Posted by miami , Apr 27, 2009 5:01PM
26 - so, so close.
Negative, Ghostrider, the pattern is full.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 5:03PM
IF YOU WANT PICTURES OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY USE THE FKING CIRCLE LINE, OR IF YOU DON'T WANT TO PAY, USE THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY YOU AHOLE!
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 5:54PM
53, you're an ass...try being in any one of those buildings NYC or NJ and re-living the events of 9/11 again. Evacuating whether old, pregnant or how about (I realize this might not come to mind of many of you DBers) HANDICAPPED? Not only is it wasteful, it is beyond distasteful and disgusting.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 6:10PM
Hypocritical King Obama?
I'm surprised the 747 wasn't towing a "mission accomplished" sign over the AIG headquarters.
This expensive photo no doubt cost tens of thousands of Taxpayer Dollars, yet solves ZERO problems. "A New Era of Responsibility?!?!?"
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 6:25PM
suzyqkentucky----we all know without a doubt something for real was up with this sh@!. Can't wait to hear want Hannity has to say about it!! Sometimes I feel like living in this world today is like watching a movie created by David Lynch (love him !), now we really are watching our life on the big screen! I can't even imagine the hurt todays has caused to the survivors of 9/11. That was just wrong.
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 6:28PM
suzyqkentucky--- by the way, at least where i live, the last 3 or 4 nights have been busy with late night B-52 runs. Anybody else notice increase in military runs this week?
Posted by guest , Apr 27, 2009 10:37PM
that skinny muslin sure has a sense of humor
Posted by Investorcluzo , Apr 27, 2009 11:20PM
so now the rumor is that the "photo op" was for some commemorative 100 days in office stuff. raise your hand if you think they will actually use it now...btw, so much for electric car/greenhouse gas initiatives. hypocritical politicians = typical.