Newsday April 28, 2009
Obama, Bloomberg, Kelly agree jet photo-op was a mistake
By Keith Herbert
The president, the mayor and the police commissioner all agreed Tuesday that flying a government jumbo jet low over Manhattan was a mistake - and one that won't happen again.
President Barack Obama, who was not aboard the presidential plane that flew over New York City and the Hudson River, made his feelings about the exercise clear yesterday as he prepared to meet with FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said he was furious Monday after being caught off guard, was calm Tuesday while discussing the low-flying exercise that frightened workers and conjured up fresh images of the 9/11 attacks.
And in the future, FAA directives about flyovers that request no public notification will go directly to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, said Paul Browne, the NYPD's top spokesman.
"We've all learned something from it and now it is time to make sure our procedures are better," Bloomberg said.
Kelly said his agency received notice from the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday in an e-mail about the photo-op. But police were advised "under penalty of law do not put this information out," the commissioner said.
The lack of public knowledge about the Monday morning flights sparked Bloomberg's fury and fears among downtown office workers, who exited their workplaces in droves.
"We would have hoped that common sense had prevailed concerning the altitude of the flights," Kelly said yesterday. "I think going forward we would never tolerate that again."
Kelly, who lives in Battery Park City, said his neighbors heard the sound of jets overhead at an altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 feet near Ground Zero.
"It was insensitive," Kelly said, speaking during an unrelated news conference. "It was very low. These are people who were, of course, traumatized significantly as a result of Sept. 11."
Federal officials have said the Air Force used the flyover to get new photographs of the well-known blue and white Boeing 747 - known as Air Force One when the president is on board - using Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop.
Yesterday, Sen. Charles Schumer asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to order a new procedure put in place to warn the public in advance of a similar flight, should one ever take place again.
The public should be given 48 hours' notice, and government Web sites should post the information, Schumer said.
"They should be shouting this information from the rooftops, not keeping it on the QT," Schumer said in a statement.
On Monday, the White House apologized for the incident.
John Pike, of Globalsecurity.org, a Washington think tank, was at a loss to explain the photo shoot.
"It's not immediately clear why this airplane needs public relations photos," Pike said. "It's not like they're selling rides on it. It's not like they're selling the airplane." The Air Force said the overall cost of the mission was $328,835, which includes the immediate $35,000 expense of fuel burned.
A Bloomberg aide, Marc Mugnos, who knew of the flights before they occurred, didn't inform the mayor.
"I've reprimanded the person that normally has done the right thing and passed on the information," Bloomberg said. "This time he didn't."
© Copyright 2009, Newsday, Inc.
