One of President Barack Obama's official planes and an Air Force fighter jet flew low over the Statue of Liberty on Monday in an approved photo opportunity that reminded some startled New Yorkers of the Sept. 11 attacks.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was "furious" and criticized the federal government and his own administration for failing to warn the public, which was rattled by the image of a jumbo jet flanked by an F-16 flying near the World Trade Center site.
"The good news is it was nothing more than an inconsiderate, badly conceived and insensitive photo op with the taxpayers' money," Bloomberg said.
New Yorkers remain sensitive to any incident evocative of the 2001 attacks, which involved hijacked airliners that destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
Many people fled buildings, and stock prices extended losses at the time.
The U.S. Air Force, which operates the president's plane, said the "aerial photo mission" involved an F-16 fighter jet escort and one of the Boeing 747s designated as Air Force One when the president is aboard. Obama was not on board.
Police said federal authorities told them not to disclose the information ahead of time and to direct any inquiries to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA called it "an approved military photo op." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he was unaware of the exercise and would consult with the military about what happened.
Pentagon officials said they were unaware of the aerial photo shoot and were not involved in its planning. The exercise was conducted by the Presidential Airlift Group, which operates under the White House Military Office.
Bloomberg called it "poor judgment on the part of the Defense Department" and blamed a breakdown in communications at City Hall for failing to inform him ahead of time.
"Had I known, I would have called them right away and asked them not to. .... They should know how sensitive people would be if they had low-flying planes down around the World Trade Center site," Bloomberg told reporters.
Employees at the New York Mercantile Exchange, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and other institutions evacuated their buildings, and hundreds of others called the 911 emergency response line, City Councilman Daniel Garodnick wrote in a letter of complaint to the FAA.
"Thousands of people filled the streets in lower Manhattan, fearing the worst. If we had had advance warning, we could have advised our constituents not to be alarmed," he wrote.
Dominick Caglioti, an independent commodities trader who works next to the site where the Twin Towers formerly stood, said, "We took it upon ourselves to leave the building. We asked police downstairs about it, and they said they didn't know anything. It could have caused some real panic."