The One Big mistake was made in November, 2008.

Is it possible that in the grander scheme of things this was a good thing for us 48%ers? This was a great reminder of 9/11 and this country needs that in a bad way.

You have to wonder how many New Yorkers saw this jet buzzing the city and thought: Waterboarding – HELL YES!!!

The conspiracy nut in me wonders if this wasn’t intentional as a means of putting the “torture” show trials issue to bed as a result of public opinion. I suppose we will have to wait to see how much publicity the mainstreams give this. I don’t follow network news – is this getting airplay anywhere but in the blogosphere?

Mikefy on April 28, 2009 at 11:17 AM

I actually thought the same thing yesterday. This might just backfire on The Won, reminding people about national security again. That could only be a good thing for America and we all know O didn’t mean for that to happen, lol.

-Aslan’s Girl

He was being sarcastic about how we never see the 9/11 videos on television anymore. They were purposely curtailed because it was thought that we could not handle seeing them would continue to care about national security and vote GOP.

carbon_footprint on April 28, 2009 at 11:23 AM

FIFY.

-Aslan’s Girl

-Aslan’s Girl

The fact that the plane had fighter escorts might have given some people pause. Maybe.
But you can tell by the way people are cursing in despair in some of these clips that the first thing that comes to mind for the unprepared person is another terrorist attack.

Count to 10 on April 28, 2009 at 10:47 AM

Actually, the fighter jets made it look more like a hijacked plane, imo. We know that after 9/11 the govmt’s way of dealing with hijacked planes is to send fighter jets up to shoot it down.

-Aslan’s Girl

All I can say is that I thank God that Obama wasn’t at the controls or else his Islamic Manchurian Candidate brainwashing would have taken over and he’d have flown it into either the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.
Seriously.
CatchAll

Only if he had his “Manchurian Candidate brainwashing teleprompter” instructing him how to fly the 747.

gary on April 28, 2009 at 4:05 PM

Gary, move your fire select switch off auto. Otherwise you may get an F-16 escort… ;-)

Idiotic publicity stunt, or stupid political ploy. You decide.

coldwarrior on April 28, 2009 at 1:32 PM

Ok….but that still doesn’t explain all the hooplah about it now. The people of New York were scared. Has that happened before? I’ve never heard of it, nor can I recall any news story that covered this, and had one of the planes flying so low, and skimming so close to buildings, and the statue of liberty. None of this makes any damn sense.

Also to note. The blame game is being perpetrated here. That makes no sense either, if this was just a standard thing.

The BIG question for me now is….why the hush hush on it? Did they think they could do this, and no one would notice? Get in, do some flying around, then leave? They knew people would see it, and they had to know some might not see it, for what it was, as was the case.

So why not warn people, or give a heads up? That’s bothering me. Why the secrecy on this? My personal thought is….they wanted to see the reactions. Now, thanks to you tube, the whole world will see…and so will the terrorists.

Nice work there, Barry, but I have no doubts, that you got what you were intent on getting.

The One formally declared this a “mistake” at an appearance this morning, you’ll be glad to know.

The real mistake was made on November 4th, by 52% of voters.

Anyone recall the fauxtrage over executives using a private plane to fly in to Washington? I bet the price tag for those was a bargain compared to this sorry boondoggle. Sort of reminiscent of the fauxtrage over AIG bonuses, when compared to the government’s orgy of spending they were small potatoes.

Just a little note on what’s known as the Hudson River Corridor to Private Pilots. You have to be flying below 1,100 feet in order to avoid airspace for the local airports. You can also do this WITHOUT talking to any Air Traffic Controllers.

Anything above this, you need to speak to ATC. One other item, this SHOULD have been announced to the ATC/FAA since they’ll need to be notifying any pilots that would’ve been flying in the area.

HarryStar on April 28, 2009 at 3:14 PM

At the point where AF 1 was flying above Liberty and Ellis Islands, it’s within spitting distance of one of the busiest GA (general aviation) airports in the world, Teterboro, and also EWR (Newark Liberty International). At the time of day this happened, both were very busy.

BTW the FAA had at least temporarily changed the rules for the Hudson River Corridor after the 2007 plane crash that killed NY Yankees pitcher Rob Lytle. As you said anything below 1,100 feet was OK, but they cancelled that. His plane had taken off from Teterboro, gone south over Liberty Island, then hooked a left and went up by Governors Island and flew up the East River before crashing.

I appreciate the information, coldwarrior. My ignorance of this is due to it never before being pointed out that my understanding is in error. My ignorance of Air Force One being merely a call sign and not aircraft itself up to the point of my making the comment, as well as the the reference to it being a 747, has a lot to how it is reported to the public, so I can sympathize with others like me who still haven’t gotten it since the Truman Administration.