Air Force One Traumatizes New York

[Spikes]

I think it was carefully planned and excecuted.

 They expected media attention, wanted it to some degree. This was maybe a cunningly vieled statement to show terrorists how little the 9/11 attacks dented the American way of life. Airforce One proud and clear flying above the populace..business as usual for the USA.
 Causing mass hysteria shows the opposite, how much the 9/11 attacks rocked the American people. Reason i think along these lines is I dont see how anyone could be stupid enough to pull this stunt without thinking of 9/11. I just think they totaly misjudged what the media and public reaction would be.

A completely different view and I like it.

[DMBEAR]

haha, silly americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN57C98B310 

I guess thats the same type of reaction that an arrival of a dentist would cause on your little island. 

[Shifty]

haha, silly americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN57C98B310 

There's nothing silly about what New York City has been through. Nor their reaction to what appears to be history repeating itself.

[Spikes]

haha, silly americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN57C98B310 

Ok...I guess Britian hasn't had any terrorist attacks and plane hijacks that have wrecked havoc on major cities...how is this 'silly'?

[mechanic]

Terrorism has been in Britain for over one hundred years if you count the IRA nail bombing and ram raiding people up untill the early 90s and sometimes still. Airliners have been targeted in the past and isolated hysteria not uncommon on a smaller scale in Europe in general has broken out in the past.
 I think the point being if you see two American fighters and what appears to be the President flying past you should cheer, at least untill it becomes apparent that they are infact hostile. Mass hysteria is a silly thing there is no doubt. Pain and loss is not silly, no one would minimise loss on the scale of 9/11. I dont think thrila is saying it was a good idea to fly past like that, he is saying the scale of panic was silly.

It's a lose - lose argument. If the panic was not realisticly 'a little over the top' then those responsible are idiots for doing it at all. 

On the other side of that argument, I think any nation's general populace would act the same way if 9/11 had happened to them. We have no right to judge people who actualy witnessed the twin towers first hand. In some cases civillians would have been left with the same shell shocked feeling as active combat soldiers. Life will never erase those images from their minds. They should not have paniced at a clearly American military and state pressance in the air. They had every right to react that way in reality. It was too predictable to have not been thought about before the 'photo shoot'.

[Spikes]

Terrorism has been in Britain for over one hundred years if you count the IRA nail bombing and ram raiding people up untill the early 90s and sometimes still. Airliners have been targeted in the past and isolated hysteria not uncommon on a smaller scale in Europe in general has broken out in the past.
 I think the point being if you see two American fighters and what appears to be the President flying past you should cheer, at least untill it becomes apparent that they are infact hostile. Mass hysteria is a silly thing there is no doubt. Pain and loss is not silly, no one would minimise loss on the scale of 9/11. I dont think thrila is saying it was a good idea to fly past like that, he is saying the scale of panic was silly.

It's a lose - lose argument. If the panic was not realisticly 'a little over the top' then those responsible are idiots for doing it at all. 

On the other side of that argument, I think any nation's general populace would act the same way if 9/11 had happened to them. We have no right to judge people who actualy witnessed the twin towers first hand. In some cases civillians would have been left with the same shell shocked feeling as active combat soldiers. Life will never erase those images from their minds. They should not have paniced at a clearly American military and state pressance in the air. They had every right to react that way in reality. It was too predictable to have not been thought about before the 'photo shoot'.

Too true. Indeed when you see two fighters you SHOULD, if you're in your right mind, know you are safe. Now half of Americans probably don't know what a fighter jet is, but, generally speaking. Anyone should be in panic mode, I know I would have been for at least a few moments. If the plane was hijacked the fighters would have been ordered to shoot the plane down well before it got close to NYC. This seems kind of like a publicity stunt if you ask me.

[Shifty]

Terrorism has been in Britain for over one hundred years if you count the IRA nail bombing and ram raiding people up untill the early 90s and sometimes still. Airliners have been targeted in the past and isolated hysteria not uncommon on a smaller scale in Europe in general has broken out in the past.
 I think the point being if you see two American fighters and what appears to be the President flying past you should cheer, at least untill it becomes apparent that they are infact hostile. Mass hysteria is a silly thing there is no doubt. Pain and loss is not silly, no one would minimise loss on the scale of 9/11. I dont think thrila is saying it was a good idea to fly past like that, he is saying the scale of panic was silly.

It's a lose - lose argument. If the panic was not realisticly 'a little over the top' then those responsible are idiots for doing it at all. 

On the other side of that argument, I think any nation's general populace would act the same way if 9/11 had happened to them. We have no right to judge people who actualy witnessed the twin towers first hand. In some cases civillians would have been left with the same shell shocked feeling as active combat soldiers. Life will never erase those images from their minds. They should not have paniced at a clearly American military and state pressance in the air. They had every right to react that way in reality. It was too predictable to have not been thought about before the 'photo shoot'.

I doubt they recognized it as Air Force One until it's actually close enough to see the markings. Some people probably never got a close enough look to recognize the 747 as AF-1. Most people probably only saw a jumbo jet low over the city with a fighter plane in trail. For all they knew the fighter was about to attack a hijacked aircraft. For those that saw 911 first hand these images would certainly cause panic. There's nothing silly about it. What is silly is for somebody who has not lived through this kind of thing to judge the reactions of those who have.

[Shamus]

In this post 9/11 world I have been told to panic at the drop of a hat, that is why when the ANG flies their C130's at tree top level training around here, I immediately pop a bunch of tranquilizers that I have stashed for just such an occasion.

shamus   

[fudgums]

I doubt they recognized it as Air Force One until it's actually close enough to see the markings. Some people probably never got a close enough look to recognize the 747 as AF-1. Most people probably only saw a jumbo jet low over the city with a fighter plane in trail. For all they knew the fighter was about to attack a hijacked aircraft. For those that saw 911 first hand these images would certainly cause panic. There's nothing silly about it. What is silly is for somebody who has not lived through this kind of thing to judge the reactions of those who have.

Cover up IMO or completely idiotic by the government

[Shifty]

Cover up IMO or completely idiotic by the government

I would agree an idiotic undertaking. What exactly would they be covering up though?

[mechanic]

 Read again the second point i made, Shifty, if you would. If you want a more simplified answer It was silly to panic but being silly about it was justified considering the people invovled.


 Thinking again on the subject, I expect a reasonable ammount of New Yorkers didnt even see it and just heard a rumour spreading from block to block and got on the band wagon. An even higher percentage of NY'ers probably dont even care. This is all just fill-in news to take up time before the next revealing developement in World War III. Or should we call it the Cold War II? I just pray to anything that will listen there is not any kind of Pearl Harbour II in the near future or we are all going to see fighter jets flying through our cities alot more often. Maybe they did it to toughen New York up again.


edit: Shamus

[Shifty]

If it's justified it's not silly. There's a simple explanation for you.

[mechanic]

Good point although the rule does not work for everything. Sueing a fast food joint because the coffee was too hot and scolded your lips is justified but also very silly. That is besides the point.

On a larger scale many of those who did panic must surely have been just caught in the wave of confusion and terror rather than directly or emotionaly harmed by 9/11. How many people in the panic moved to NY after 9/11 and only ever saw it on the news?

Panic is silly, a soldier who panics is useless. Soldiers have hot metal whizzing past them all day and rarely panic because they are trained to realise that panic is silly. Silly being defined in both these cases as a course of action that does nothing to remedy a situation and often increases the damage.

[DREDIOCK]

Mass histeria ... when fear overides any comon sense. 

Maybe if you live in the NY/NJ area at the time of the WTC attacks you might have a different perspective. Its not like low flying jets are commonplace around here. And the last time we had low flying large jets flying around they went into  buildings.
Now you have a low flying and what looks like to the average Joe on the ground a commercial jet flying around with an F-16 near by.
Its not hard to understand how folks might be just a tad bit jumpy.

Completely irresponsible on whoever decided to do this. both from a PR and financial standpoint.
I'm sure it costs a couple of taxpayer dollars everytime either of these birds takes to the air. And to do so for a photo op?
Havent they ever heard of Photo Shop?

[DREDIOCK]

Terrorism has been in Britain for over one hundred years if you count the IRA nail bombing and ram raiding people up untill the early 90s and sometimes still.

Its been in Ireland for at least that long too