Terror In The Sky

A head has finally rolled for authorising the 747 photo-op fly-by in New York where a 747 was shadowed by an F-16 jet as it flew by the statue of liberty. Not surpringly it caused some panic in a city which has never fully-recovered from the attacks on 9-11.

A White House military aide who authorised an Air Force flyover of New York which caused panic among some people in the city has resigned.

Louis Caldera said in a resignation letter to President Barack Obama that the controversy over the mission - a photo shoot of a jumbo jet used as Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty in the background - made it impossible for him to lead the White House Military Office.

The flight over lower Manhattan for a photo shoot scared some New Yorkers who remembered the September 11 attacks in 2001 involving hijacked airliners that destroyed the World Trade Centre. Some people panicked and evacuated office buildings when the planes flew over.

Mr Caldera had approved the mission. His resignation came on the same day Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in a letter to Senator John McCain that the photo shoot cost US taxpayers as much as $357,000 (£234,000).

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mr Obama had accepted the resignation.

Mr Obama had been described as furious when the incident occurred on April 27 and demanded a review.

Mr McCain, who lost to Mr Obama in last year's presidential election and is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the incident an "Air Farce One photo op."

The report of the review said ultimately Mr Caldera did not notify relevant White House officials about the flyover in advance.

It said: "When asked why he failed to do so, he did not offer a coherent explanation. He stated that it was not a conscious decision - he did not intend not to notify them. Instead, he suggested that it may have been an oversight."

Also released was a photo of the Air Force jet over the State of Liberty from the mission.

Mr Gates, providing details demanded by Mr McCain in the wake of the incident, said the cost of a jumbo jet that is used as the president's plane, Air Force One, was estimated between $300,658 and $328,835.

The cost of two accompanying F-16 jets was $28,177 for a total of $357,012, Mr Gates said.


But my spider-sense is tingling. Hmmmmm. What if it really was an attempted terrorist attack and not a photo-opportunity? What if there were terrorists on board the plane but they were thwarted at the last minute? What if the jet was there to blow it out of the sky? What if the resignation is just part of the cover-up, so that the American people don't realise how close they came to another major terrorist attack? See, there's the problem... Govenments lie so often that we no longer believe a word they say....

Either way, it'd be a great book. Just gotta work out how I can get Spider Shepherd on Air Force One!