HoodaThunk?

A couple of weeks ago an extremely low-level flight of one of the 2 aircraft performing duties as Air Force One on the Presidential flights over New York City caused quite the panic. I can understand why: a large aircraft, commonly in use in the commercial aviation sector and seen quite often arriving and departing the major New York airports was seen seriously deviating from known flight paths and heading directly toward the city with a fighter jet in close pursuit. It scared a lot of people unnecessarily.

It could have been handled way better, especially since the flight shouldn’t have been considered some kind of classified operation. It was a P/R photo op. There should have been no issue announcing it to the public a few days early so the flight could have been permitted and, perhaps, even enjoyed by the city’s residents.

But to suggest that every single flight of any aircraft at all that’s not on the airlines’ scheduled service needs to be treated the same way is a bit much. That’s why this story about the FAA denying permission to a US Navy P-3 Orion to overfly the city has me shaking my head:

The Federal Aviation Administration turned down a U.S. Navy request to fly a patrol aircraft past Manhattan on Monday, two weeks after a nerve-racking Air Force photo shoot over the Statue of Liberty caused a brief panic.

The agency said it refused clearance for the flight down the Hudson River because the Navy had given it only a few hours notice of its plans.

The P-3 Orion reconnaissance plane from the U.S. Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, was to have flown past the city, then head back north, sometime around 10:30 a.m.

FAA officials said the four-engine, turboprop admittedly had a low probability of attracting attention. It was to have flown no lower than 3,000 feet, well above New York’s tallest skyscrapers, in an air corridor where planes of a similar size are a common sight.

But after city officials were informed and higher-level FAA officials learned about the request, they declined permission for the flight, saying unannounced military flybys were a bad idea.

So an aircraft that’s clearly of military make (see here for a picture of the P-3 and you’ll notice it doesn’t look line any airliner in common use by US carriers today) would be flying 3000 feet above the height of the tallest buildings in New York in a corridor in use by commercial aviation today and that’s to be equated to a 747 buzzing the city at levels far below normal flight paths? I’m sorry, that’s just ridiculous. And the FAA’s excuse that they weren’t given sufficient notice rings a little false when you consider how many aircraft a day they get into their airspace that didn’t appear on their manifests until that morning when the pilot filed a flight plan.

Are New Yorkers now to be considered so frail, so faint-hearted that they cannot bear the sight of a military aircraft flying in their presence? Can they no longer be considered strong enough to deal with an unscheduled flight within their viewing range that they were not carefully advised of a week in advance? Hey, Empire State – advise your elected leaders that you’ve still got the stones to be able to look up and see an aircraft flying the colors of the mightiest military ever to walk the face of the earth and not quail in fear. There are our boys and girls up there getting the training they need. It’s OK and our governmental agencies should be OK with it, too.