Insensitive Air Force One Lower Manhattan Flyover "Photo Op" Causes Panic

We live in an age of instant communication. Information flows as if from a fire hose.

Yet total communications failure happened in New York City today when an Air Force One look-a-like and two Air Force fighter jets flew as low as 1000 to 150 feet in a circle over Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey.

Panic ensued as workers from many office buildings ran into the streets before they learned that the flights were just a "government photo op."

The low-flying planes caused a brief panic among office workers near ground zero, according to Associated Press and other news organizations.

"It scared a couple of million people," one airport official told ABC News. As a 9/11 survivor I know exactly what went through people's minds when they heard and then saw those low-flying planes.

According to ABC News, a statement from the New York City Police Department said that local authorities were told not to disclose information about this morning's flyover.

There is simply no excuse for imposing that type of scare on New Yorkers. Go do your photo ops somewhere else! Sheesh!

UPDATE: President Obama calls Air Force One flyover 'mistake' day after low-flying plane terrifies New York

Why Obama wanted to do an airplane photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination...

See this video my friend captured. Obama Photo Op Disaster: New Yorkers Running Scared in the Streets by Goldman Sachs

Video: http://tinyurl.com/c7ujkj

Has the United States government not heard of photoshop??

This incident was definitely a failure among communication. They should have a designated area to do these "photo ops", not nearby where people are working and could get easily frightened. This seems almost childish.

Such an epic fail. With so many intelligent people on Obama's staff surely someone piped up with "I don't mean to be a downer here but what if we scare people because we're flying planes around New York City?"

I assume everyone would like to see where the White House New Media folks intended to land Scare Force One on the web. For some reason the New Media folks were able to talk Mr. Caldera into taking new pictures of Air Force One for the recently released White House Web site. I wonder if they will use the NYC images to replace the current one. http://pfx.me/l7

What was the operation meant to achieve? Many airports around the world have stopped night landings and takeoffs for fear of disturbing residents in the area.
The one thing unbelievable about the report is that the aircraft were flying as low as 150 feet of the ground.