Because some things need context and explanation and its better to do it over here-than to try to explain it over there.
To some degree all the upset over having a photo exercise with Air Force One over the New York City is manufactured outrage-on both sides of the political fence. It was really not that big a deal. I’m not saying it could not have been handled better-but some of the rhetoric since then is just a little over wrought.
Sometimes a duck is just a duck.
Clearly, in hindsight, there were some things as far as public notification and /or “conditioning” the public of New York, that could have been done better. If you Google the news reports you become quickly aware that there was a breakdown in communication between the FAA and the City of New York-although I agree with one of Lex’s commenters that someone in the city knew about the fly by-but did not pass it on high enough or early enough.
However, the over reaction in response to the photo ex probably ensures that no other military aircraft will get to make a flyby picture over America’s largest city. Which in turn will deprive us of the opportunity to see cool pictures like this:
And not allowing Air Force One to participate in flyovers will deprive them the opportunity to have cool pictures to put up in various air terminals like this:
Everybody needs to calm down a bit.
First of all-a unit like the 89th Airlift Wing does not just put an event like the New York flyover on its flight schedule. They plan it, they vette it up the chain of command-in this event to the White House Military Office. They coordinate with the FAA for airspace.
I can guarantee you that the plan was thought out pretty thoroughly and I can bet just as assuredly the idea that the people of New York would panic was probably not one of the top ten concerns in putting the mission together. It may have been discussed, but I can think of a couple of things that had a higher priority on the risk management front. And should have had higher priority. Things like:
1) Avoiding a mid-air between the two aircraft.
2) Route of flight and how to get in and out of the airspace
3)Making sure all the required clearances were on file and that there was a paper trail showing it was on the up and up.
4) Maintaining separation and how to split up if the fighter lost sight of the bigger aircraft.
5) What happens if any of the aircraft go down. ( Air Force One going down during a photo op is pretty big PR nightmare in and of itself).
If my suspicions are correct-it was assumed that the FAA would take care of the necessary city notifications. After all, its the FAA-not the city-that owns the airspace above New York.
An Obama administration official said the mission was “classified” by the military and that the FAA, which controls much of the airspace over Manhattan, did what the military asked. “The mission was to send [the aircraft] up to get a picture of it flying around the Statue of Liberty,” this person said. “They said they needed to update their photo files.” President Obama wasn’t aboard.
The New York photo shoot wasn’t the only one planned. The White House had scheduled a follow-up session on May 5 or May 6 in Washington, D.C., according to two government officials. The D.C. flyover has now been canceled, a government official said.
Louis Caldera, a former Secretary of the Army who runs the White House Military Office, took the blame. “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption,” he said. “I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”
I’ll go out on a limb here and say-the White House military office ought to be able to approve a mission like this with out having to say “mother may I” to the President. In normal world this would be how things are done with the decision delegated to the appropriate level.
These are not normal times however.
However on the surface, it would seem all the right things were done:
On Thursday night, city officials say, a junior mayoral aide had been alerted to the flyover by the Federal Aviation Administration, which requested that it be kept secret. Someone in City Hall alerted the New York Police Department, but no public announcement was made.
Marc Mugnos was reprimanded for not apprising the mayor, and a disciplinary letter was placed in his file, a spokesman said. Mr. Mugnos couldn’t be reached for comment.
video
A low-flying airplane escorted by military jets sent worried workers fleeing offices in the New York City area. The FAA said it was a “photo op” conducted by a unit of the Air Force.
The email sent to City Hall describes a “flying photo op” — government-speak for a publicity photo — to include two or possibly three passes over the area. The email, sent by an FAA official and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, lists flight patterns and specifies a photo-op altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 feet.
The email specifies that the information “only be shared with persons with a need to know” and “shall not be released to the public.” It also says that, “Due to the possibility of public concern regarding [Department of Defense] aircraft flying at low levels, coordination with Federal, State and Local law enforcement agencies…has been accomplished.”
1500 feet is not that low-really. It is a good altitude to get some pictures with definition of the buildings in the background though. And the desire to limit distribution of the news is probably a habit formed by the fact that the aircraft in question was Air Force One.
The outrage about all the money it cost? Well I hate to rain on anyone’s parade-but those dead dinosaurs were going out the exhaust pipe one way or another. If not on a photo op-they would have been burned elsewhere. That money was already spent when the wing or the squadrons in question got their fuel budget for the quarter.
So you can put away the tea bags on that one.
I, for one, wish that there had been a calm explanation of the facts here and some acknowledgment that the people in the military who put this mission together were professionals who know what they are doing. It would also probably be useful to point out that aircraft flyover the Hudson all the time-there is a designated air corridor to do so. I’ve done it in my trusty War Hummer, so have plenty of other military aviators.
Maybe the whole lot of them-the people of New York and inside the White House could actually learn a thing or two from another city that had a plane fly close its buildings. I was actually there when this happened-and no one panicked :
By the way-that would have been a good way to get the word out, tell every one you are filming a movie. That was what Hong Kong did.
