Air Force One Flyby Causes Brief Panic In NYC

pdclarry writes "A Boeing 747 that serves as an Air Force One backup and two F-16 fighters escorting it caused a brief panic among office workers at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan this morning, as large numbers evacuated the buildings. The incident was also spurred evacuations in Jersey City across the Hudson River from Manhattan."

Look Boss

[Phoenixhawk]

Da Plane, Da Plane...

Interesting

[FredFredrickson]

I won't lie, I irrationally freak out every time I see a plane flying low. Although it's never anything- just some sight-seeing tourist plane. Still freaks me out. I don't live in the city though, I live in central NH. I can imagine why it freaks out New Yorkers. So before everybody goes on the whole "everybody's just over-reacting" thing, why don't we instead consider other options:

-Building tall buildings underground, instead of above.
-Requiring high altitudes for all planes, military or civilian, and producing auto-shoot auto-aim turrets around the ciy with no warning shots.
- Include parashoots as standard emergency materials for skyscrapers?

Re:We are a bunch

[nametaken]

Alert. Unafraid citizen. Sanitize... SANITIZE!

Re:We are a bunch

[s0litaire]

Maybe it was a plan to stimulate the cleaning, underwear and toilet paper industries... I'm sure there will be a load of undies needing cleaned tonight.....

Re:Interesting

[Farmer Tim]

-Building tall buildings underground, instead of above.

Great idea, then everyone can be basement dwellers.

(chants) One of us! One of us!

Re:Wow....

[Nimey]

I fear authoritarians, opportunistic politicians, and bad financial planning. Also stupid people.

Since this is Slashdot, sometimes I fear reading the article.

Performance art

[Nimey]

This was performance art by the Obama administration, the better to show people what paranoid idiots they are.

Re:Wow....

[Dunbal]

It's pretty terrible that we as a nation are this scared by such events.

      Yes, everyone knows that the real threat is from Mooninites attempting to blow up highway overpasses around Boston...

Re:We are a bunch

[Entropy98]

Maybe some of those people just wanted some extra time off with pay!

Re:We are a bunch

[Anonymous Coward]

It's one of the first weeks of 80+ degree weather in New York. Everyone just needed an excuse to go outside. End of story.

Re:Interesting

[FredFredrickson]

I forgot the IRONY tags. My bad.

Re:What an irresponsible move!

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of how an obscure book about hitchhiking in the galaxy began...

Re:We are a bunch

[Anonymous Coward]

The last time a jetliner flew very low, didn't it end up in the Hudson? Didn't ferry service stop immediately?

Re:We are a bunch

[IndustrialComplex]

Next time that shit happens, I'm first in line at the ferry (excepting the elderly, the very young, and the preggers).

Note to self:

Bribe someone to do a flyby.
Target the ferry.

Re:We are a bunch

[Red Flayer]

The last time a jetliner flew very low, didn't it end up in the Hudson? Didn't ferry service stop immediately?

Aw crap. Forgot about that one.

s/last time/second-to-last time

Re:We are a bunch

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like to stimulate her pussy if you know what I mean!

Re:Wow....

[tompaulco]

Statiscially speaking you're just as likely to be eaten by a shark while in a tall building.
2500 people have been eaten by sharks while in a tall building? Do you have a source for that?

Re:We are a bunch

[White Yeti]

It's hard to imagine myself in that situation, but I think my first thought be "Even the military is afraid of that jet." It might not make sense in retrospect, but there it is. Some hardened types would trust the fighter escort for cues, others wouldn't.

Re:Wow....

[Anonymous Coward]

. . . and snakes -- don't forget the snakes!

Re:Wow....

[Anonymous Coward]

By the time you can tell that it is/isn't Air Force One, it's probably too late.

They should paint the following on all airplanes:
If you can read this, you are next to 64,000 gallons of jet fuel.

Re:We are a bunch

[Nutria]

747s don't fly at that altitude, in circles, around lower Manhattan. Ever.

Evidence shows, though, that it does happen.

Re:We are a bunch

[brainproxy]

Obviously text messages are harder to send than voice calls, otherwise why would my phone company charge me $0.10 per message?

Re:We are a bunch

[X0563511]

F-16s, not F-15s. Why does this matter so much?

We've sold F-16s to just about everyone. There's no guarantee they are ours.

Re:We are a bunch

[AaxelB]

It's like when you walk into a Tube station and see ten of the Met's finest standing there. In theory you ought to feel safer, but in practice you wonder what's happening that you don't know about.

See, I had this image of a bunch of guys dressed like the Three Tenors standing around in a subway, and couldn't figure out why that would make someone feel safe...

I guess the Met [police.uk] makes more sense than the Met [metoperafamily.org].

Re:We are a bunch

[Red Flayer]

Couldn't you have walked?

A ferry is a boat, it's used to cross water.

Last time I checked, I wasn't Jesus, so I don't think I could have walked home. :)

FYI, the tunnels were closed too, and I'd have needed to walk about 20 miles out of my way to cross using a bridge.

Re:We are a bunch

[morcego]

Ok, so you have seconds to react.
I can only imagine one single way for you to evacuate a building in seconds. And I don't think you would survive it.

Re:We are a bunch

[interkin3tic]

You're still more likely to be eaten by a shark than you are to die in another plane crashing into a building.

My god, you're right, sharks could crash planes into buildings and then eat us!

Land of the Brave...

[BrokenHalo]

Brave Sir Robin, that is...

"When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned around and fled,
Brave, brave brave, brave Sir Robin"

Re:Wow....

[Cajun Hell]

WTF? How quickly people forget! The 747 was the plane Saddam Hussein was piloting.