White House Apologizes for Air Force Flyover Of Ground Zero

Mayor Bloomberg Rushes To Submit Flyover Loophole Bill To End Such Harrowing Stunts...Mexican Government Blames U.S. Gunshows For Tijuana Flyovers From Last Year..

"An Air Force One lookalike, the backup plane for the one regularly used by the president, flew low over parts of New York and New Jersey on Monday morning, accompanied by two F-16 fighters, so Air Force photographers could take pictures high above the New York harbor.

But the exercise — conducted without any notification to the public — caused momentary panic in some quarters and led to the evacuation of several buildings in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City. By the afternoon, the situation had turned into a political fuse box, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg saying that he was “furious” that he had not been told in advance about the flyover.

The flyover, which began around 10 a.m., resulted in widespread confusion and a flood of calls to emergency hot lines. Perplexed officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and other authorities were inundated with calls from anxious ferry passengers, office workers and residents.

The mayor said the Police Department and someone in his administration – he did not say who – received an e-mail from the Federal Aviation Administration late on Thursday, informing them that there would be “a fly-by for a photo-op, as they described it.”

However, Mr. Bloomberg said he was not apprised of the flyover until his BlackBerry started buzzing this morning with messages from people asking if he knew what was going on. He characterized it as a breakdown in communication that “will never happen again.”

“First thing is, I’m annoyed – furious is a better word – that I wasn’t told,” he said at a City Hall news conference held to discuss the swine flu cluster in Queens."

MESSENGER SCOOP....MESSENGER SCOOP...

Operatives working for Shooting the Messenger...the online blog chronicling the adventures of a High Marshall of the Hogtown Irregulars... have discovered that the Mayor's office added that there had been discussions concerning possible straw-flyover attempts, whereby private investigators hired by the Mayor would call the White House asking for a flyover, with prosecution to follow should any of the Obama staff agree to such a proposal.