Air Force One scares New York

“Good one, FAA,” said Holly Bailey in Newsweek. Thousands of people in Lower Manhattan—with 9/11 images still seared in their minds—"went into total panic" Monday (watch video of New Yorkers running as the jet nears) when one of the jets used as Air Force One flew over New York Harbor, tailed by a fighter jet. And all so Air Force photographers could snap photos of the plane passing the Statue of Liberty. (watch a jet used as Air Force One buzz New York City)

Anybody could have told them that buzzing the neighborhood where the World Trade Center twin towers once stood would trigger painful memories, said the New York Post in an editorial. Yet the Federal Aviation Administration inexplicably "insisted that the event be kept secret." Somebody needs to straighten out the FAA, fast.

"The first step in getting past a controversy is to take responsibility," said Jimmy Orr in The Christian Science Monitor. So Louis Caldera, head of the White House military office, took the right first step by saying he was the one who approved the mission. But why didn't authorities in New York tell anyone—even Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in the dark. "The controversy's not over yet." (watch Mayor Bloomberg's reaction to the Air Force One scare)

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