Low-Flying 747, Obama Back Up Plane, Prompts Panic And Evacuations In New York City (Video)

Update 2: Press Secretary Gibbs, President Obama had no clue this happened! (Watch Gibbs press briefing on the subject.)

Update: According to Reuters, the plane involved was one of President Barack Obama’s backup aircraft. The wire service reported that Obama was not on board.

FAA and NYPD knew about this military 747 flying low for a "photo shoot", but failed to notify the public!

This is the kind of thing they might want to let people know about ahead of time.



WSJ.com reports:

A plane circling Lower Manhattan escorted by two fighter jets is part of a “photo op,” said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters. The event caused some evacuations of office buildings in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City, N.J., on Monday morning.

Mr. 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. He said the maneuver is 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.
Kevin Chin, a 25-year-old IT analyst with UBS working in Jersey City, N.J. was in the building when his coworker Yumi Nishiyama snapped this picture (above) at around 9:40 a.m. on her iPhone. “We didn’t know what was going on until later on,” said Chin, who did not evacuate the building.