NYC sees plane, freaks out

It took me forever to get through to the NYTimes website, because today EVERYONE IS INCREDIBLY STUPID.

The Department of Defense decided - I guess because they're being threatened with actually being required to stick to a remotely reasonable budget - decides they need some neat new photographs of their people doing their thing. They do so by taking a 747 and a fighter jet (or two?) out gallivanting above Manhattan. And by 'gallivanting above' I mean '150 feet above the ground'.

Okay, questionable use of government resources but not to stupid. But, um.

Local authorities were told not to disclose information about this morning's flyover, the New York City Police Department said in a statement.

"The flight of a VC-25 aircraft (the military version of the 747) and F-16 fighters this morning was authorized by the FAA for the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it but to direct any inquiries to the FAA Air Traffic Security Coordinator," police said.

...Brilliant idea! Way to prevent panic, because there's no conceivable way that a low-flying plane in New York City could possibly bring up some unpleasant memories of some other low-flying planes.

And so naturally, the population of the metro NY area decided that instead of watching and determining that the plane was not flying into buildings - intentionally or not - and going about their business, they evacuated buildings and, as far as I can gather, freaked the hell out.

Now, I'm not saying that a bit of freaking out was not justified. Low-flying planes in the region have a history of, at best, landing in the middle of a river, and at worst killing a very large number of people. Particularly if I'd been in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, and then I saw a similar plane flying similarly low in the same place, I'd be kind of startled.

I'd say that a more appropriate reaction would have been to call the police, preferably the non-emergency number, and ask what's up with that plane - if you see fighter jets next to it there's a chance someone knows what's going on - but on the other hand, the police apparently were instructed not to say anything, because...well, I'm sure that at some point there was some vaguely rational-seeming reason in someone's mind, but damned if I can find it.

Seriously, this is one of the stupidest damn things I've seen in a long while.