Air Force One revisits 9/11

When last April 27th New Yorkers watched a Boeing 747 over the city escorted by two jet fighters, everyone felt into the worse. Windows shook; stairs were full of people trying to escape from the skyscrapers, everyone wanted to go out the buildings fearing another 9/11.

In fact, everything was quite inoffensive. The plane, -to be precise, a VC-25, the modified version of the 747 used by the Air Force One- was just being shot (just photo shots) against the Statue of Liberty to renew the library of images.

Everything had been prepared to the detail to become something to be used later as a PR boost -as if Obama needed any marketing...-. Well, everything but a little thing: no one told the New Yorkers about it. Not even to the Mayor; Bloomberg was unaware of the photo op.

Because, why tell the people that a plane was going to fly over the Ground Zero at low altitude? Yes, Ground Zero from 9/11! Get me right; Americans usually tend to exaggerate threats, but if you are going to fly low in New York, better do it near the JFK or La Guardia. Maybe the Hudson. But for fuck’s sake; not Ground Zero!

In a matter of seconds, as it happened with the Hudson landing, collective paranoia invaded the city. Phones in the emergency services started to ring and many look at the sky worried. Some others, filming (as below), just in case. For once, panic in Wall Street was indeed in the street, not inside the buildings.

After the truth about the mysterious plane was revealed, Republicans were really happy. They ask themselves who could have been so stupid and with permission to make that happen. And the answer they got was Biden.

The White House, immediately launched an investigation to clarify the incident. In the end, it wasn’t a Biden idea (sorry, Republicans), but the culprit was Louis Caldera, head of the White House Military Office. His head, however, felt immediately after presenting his resignation letter.

Together with the resignation, came a seven pages report with more details from the operation. Like the chain of mistakes that were made in the chain of command and the cost of the photo: $328,835. Wouldn’t have been easier and cheaper using Photoshop?

Yesterday Obama said kidding in a dinner with the press and celebrities that in the next 100 days, he will consider “ to lose his cool”. Well, maybe in public still is cool, but indoors, the 27th of April, a few more gray hairs appeared on his head.