Air Force One photo-op
 

From the BBC: BBC NEWS | Americas | Low-level flight panics New York

Video Link: msnbc.com Video Player


My question is, how the hell does something like this happen? Are the people who arranged this, thought of this, etc. completely unaware of what happened in 2001?

9/11 happened nearly 8 years ago and by all means, we shouldn't live our lives thinking we are going to die each day, but when the federal government completely ignores telling the people of New York City that when that big jumbo jet with an F-16 heading straight towards you not to panic because they are taking photos, I have to wonder who thought of this and who approved this venue, this form of going about a photoshoot.

The FAA approved it, but I really think they should have let the news networks know so that they can tell people and it wouldn't have them freaking out. Worst part is, it doesn't even seem like the White House, nor Mayor Bloomberg, really knew what was going on. :uhoh:

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Yes, i heard about this on the news.

I must say, probably one of the stupidest things the FAA Has done....

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I don't really see the problem, yes it would be scary. But, the VC-25s that the Air Force operates have very distinctive markings. It's almost like an American not knowing what the White House is.

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Oh, lack of proper communication, you strike again.


Am I the only one who, if seeing a fighter jet I knew was American flying low overhead, would say "Cool!" instead of freaking out?

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I would orgasm.....

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Sorry, but what a bunch of whiny maggots.

I understand 9/11 happened and the memory of it is fresh, however a low-flying aircraft doesn't automatically spell doom. The panic is ridiculous.

That being said, this was a boneheaded move by the government. Anyone with an ounce of sense can understand shitheaded moves by our puppetmasters.

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I was in Manhattan all day and I didn't even find out about this until late afternoon.

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One of the new Boeing 747's for use by President Obama as Air Force One was being delivered and someone decided it would be cool to get a photo op of the new Air Force One with two F-16's as escort zooming the Statue Of Liberty.

The FAA was informed but apparently did not properly forward the data so when a Boeing 747 started flying low over New York with two F-16's in tow the city panicked.

I can see being rattled by the Boeing 747 but I would have also realized that there were two F-16's flying with it instead of trying to shoot it down.

The 747, while technically only called Air Force One while the president is aboard, has a distinctive paint job that apparently no one noticed either.

Obama was not on board.

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To repeat my post from the FH OT forum:

Heh:

- Waste of money (oohh a photoop)
- Miscommunication
- The location is questionable, though I'd either have gone for Washington (flying over the whitehouse at low altitude) or New York (yes, despite the terrible thing that happend). IF I would have did such a wasteful photoop to begin with (I don't think I would have).
- Poor communication again, if this simply "had" to happen it should have been all over the news a day or two in advance. Calling the various authorities (cityhall, emergency services and all the shit they did call) is nice but they should also have released a memo to the press you think. Fuckup.
- A waste of money, did I mention that?

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It is quite clear that this ain't a normal airplane that is being hunted down by jet fighters. So it might have looked cool, and I guess it might have been appriciated if it was announced to the public properly, but it has "waste of money" written all over it. But then the goverments around the world waste money on all sorts of things.

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We get fighter jets flying low all the time here. It gets quite annoying after a while. Anyways, they should have told the medias at least a week prior so they could get it out to people properly.

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When in panic or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout. They could at least try to have some dignity.

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My problem is with the people. I saw a video of people running away from the plane. In the direction the plane was flying. This does not make sense.

Another thing, all it takes is for some random guy to say "RUN!!", and the whole crowd switches over to panic-mode. Yes, the FAA made a mistake, the people are to blame too for panicing like idiots because of a low-flying plane.

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Apparently the Pentagon notified the FAA who notified the New York Police Department...but also added a footnote that this was not to be made public.

Also a mayoral assistant was told but for whatever reason the news was not forwarded to the mayor.

The flight was a training flight that was decided to combine with the planned photo op of Air Force One over national monuments to conserve money.

By FAA rules the minimum allowed altitude over populated areas is 1000 feet above the tallest object within a 2000ft radius. The aircraft were at 1500 ft.

So the flight broke no laws other than to panic a bunch of dip shit sheeple, And we all know Sheeple's herd mentality.

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Oh man you took the words right outta my mouth man. Really is 9/11 still making people freak out "omg a plane."

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Are you accusing the United States Government of wasting money? If you were an American citizen I would have you arrested for treason! As it stands now, I'll start working on getting you labled as a terrorist. We'll see how you feel after a few days in a nice little CIA camp.

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Is it really that easy? =p

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-Thanks obama. This really helps your image! Maybe next time try 2 jombo jets instead of one?

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You better believe it. Maybe twenty years ago this would not be the case, but now, you're screwed.

He wasn't on the plane, nor did he make the decision for the photo shoot.

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Will milk and cookies be served? :lookaround:

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He didn't have anything to do with it(*). Calling it his fault is the same as saying it's Queen Elizabeth II that it's cold in Antartica.

* - Actually he could have locked his plane before leaving it in public.

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Actually, he did know it was happening. Its a lie for him to say he didn't. Its his PERSONAL AIRPLANE. He would be required to know that his plane was going to be in use for that day, and that he would have to procure other forms of transport if he needed to go somewhere. Even a couple ex-secret service agents have been on radio and confirmed this. Obama saying he didn't know it was going on is just an outright lie.

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Don't care

It would only strike to me as important if the plane did crash

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You see Air Force One flying danger low you gonna think something is wrong.

I love how it said "The General Public was not notified" :lol:

Cuz the white house wants the citizens of america (and any crazy potential terrorists) to know that "hey Air Force One is gonna fly shit low near buildings" (that provide perfect cover and concealment for a RPG attack)

But hey a few piolets wanted to be badass mofos and fly AF-1 to the equivelent of a Caddie with the windows down and the music up and subs bangin hardcore. If I was an Air Force One pilot I'd show that shit off too.

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The 2 VC-25s aren't the presidents personal aircraft, they are used by the VP and cabinet members. The USAF runs all of the missions for these VC-25s, just because the President is the person that uses it the most doesn't make it so he needs to know what they're being used for. Also the missions are planned months in advance almost non are done last minute.

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Well, technically it was not Air Force One, as the President was not on it. That also reduces its value as a target.

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Someone in the Pentagon thought the new plane should have publicity shots taken over national landmarks.

There was a training flight scheduled. Someone said lets combine the training flights with the publicity photos to save money, we can do one flight instead of two. One of the pilots in the F-16 took the pictures.

The cries that this was a big waste of money was actually a training flight that would have happened anyways and by combining two missions they actually saved money.

I just listened to a police recording of a woman who called in and said there was a big plane trying to fly into the buildings. This is clearly a overreaction.

The 747 never got anywhere near any structures other than the Statue of Liberty and the aircraft maintained their required 1000ft vertical distance and 2000ft horizontal distance.

The Sheeple panicked and overreacted. People saw a aircraft flying low and in at least one case workers voluntarily evacuated the building.

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That's great. Keep the sheep on their toes.

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So let me get this straight, the whole event required coordination with the City, and the FAA, yet neither of those agencies/groups thought it would be a good idea to put that kinda stuff in the public information pool to prevent just this sorta thing from happening? As far as im concerned the White House did its part. If the White House issues a statement that its going to do something, and the press corps fails to pass that info along, its not the White House Press Secretarys fault. Same situation.

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For some reason the info had a note attached that said do not release this info to the public, which was unusual.

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Well for all of this shit, can we at least see the photos that they took?

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same here man, I wanna see the photos as well.

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Ok well technically my comment still stands, and the goddamn plane says United States of America on it and its the only boeing in existance (except for the 3 additional Air Force Ones). So, its a teenager taking his parents badass vehicle out for a joyride.

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No, it's a teenager taking his parents badass vehicle out to bring from the summer house to the real house and taking pictures on the way home.

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http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image...7275_plane.jpg


This was submitted as part of a Daily News Photoshop contest.

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Mire like "silly".

I do like their excuse that the flight was planned anyway and they combined them to save money, good on them. Though we can argue that withoutout photoop they could havew saved some more money (that and there always is an other excercise in the pipeline but meh). Atleast they tried to save (some) money.

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They really dont like the public to know exactly where and when the presidential plane will be flying danger low and danger stupid. Makes for a easy target of opportunity.

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A rather pointless target though, it would be "just the plane (and crew)". Not something really something that makes an appealing target (not more of a target the trying to attack any plane approaching or leaving any airfield when it's flying low aswell, hell those might be even better targets since they ain't "empty")...

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Well, first off, you dont know if the president is in there or not, and second, there is quite a bit of symbolism (and destruction) that would happen for blowing up Air Force One.

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Plus, a large piece of machinery with a whole bunch of fuel flying over a city could turn into a very potent weapon if it was unable to steer out of the way of several very large, very expensive, very densely populated skyscrapers.

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I believe that was well demonstrated in recent history in New York.