White House aide out after $357,012 photo-op with Air Force One

 

 A White House aide joined the unemployment lines today for his role in Air Force One’s controversial  photo-op flyover above New York, the Obama administration just announced. (Of course, it's scheduled for a Friday afternoon.)

In a statement, the White House said President Obama accepted the resignation of military office director Louis Caldera. Caldera, a former Army secretary, took responsibility for the Air Force flyover that sparked 9/11-echo panic in lower Manhattan on April 27.

What the White House wanted was the photo above. What it got at first was the one down below at the bottom, from frightened New Yorkers' cameras and cellphones.

The political cost can't yet be calculated. Obama supporters won't care. But the fact is against advice from the outgoing Bush administration, Obama's team changed Caldera's White House job classification from a career military officer to a political appointee. Now, we'll see which way they go with the second appointment to the office since Jan. 20.

The White House also released its review of the flight near the Statue of Liberty and the one photo.

Earlier, Defense Secretary Robert Gates apologized for the incident and said it had cost as much as $357,000. The fly-by with a plane used as Air Force One and two other Air Force crafts shocked commuters in Manhattan and New Jersey and was condemned by furious city and state officials.

In a letter released today, Gates apologized for the incident. The letter was posted on the Senate website of John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. McCain has called the incident an “Air Farce One photo op.” (Intentional misspelling)

Gates said the cost of a jumbo jet that is used as the president’s plane was estimated between $300,658 and $328,835. The cost of two accompanying F-16 jets was $28,177 for a maximum....

...total of $357,012. The idea was to use the April 27 flight for publicity pictures that included the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline.

Instead, 911 emergency lines were clogged by people who saw the planes and thought of another terrorist attack like on Sept. 11, 2001, when two airliners crashed into the World Trade Center, killing almost 3,000 people. The "United States of America" markings on the Air Force planes were not visible from ground level.

The publicity photographs have not been released, though the White House has promised to make them public. Obama has personally apologized for the incident, as have other officials, including the now-unemployed White House military aide Caldera.

Gates' letter said the reaction to the low-flying planes was understandable and “we deeply regret the anxiety and alarm that resulted from this mission.”

But Gates also insisted that the appropriate agencies and air traffic controllers were told of the event. New York City officials have said they were asked not to inform the public beforehand.

“I am concerned that this highly public and visible mission did not include an appropriate public affairs plan nor adequate review and approval by senior Air Force and DOD [Department of Defense] officials,” Gates added. He promised further review by defense officials.

-- Michael Muskal

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Photo credits: The White House (top); Jason McLane / Associated Press (bottom ).

Comments

[Bob]

Funny how the Obama adminstration and liberal Democrats claims that the "War on Terror" was used to scare the American public. Funny how people in NY who actually experienced terrorism first hand overwhelmingly disagreed as they fled their high rise buildings when they saw this fiasco flying in the air. What ignorance. We are still in a war, naive liberals.

[jade]

How could they NOT know it would cause alarm to see a large plane flying around like that with no obvious flight path and accompanied by a military jet? Was it a plan to embarass the President or something?

[s.s. Los Angeles]

I wonder why they couldn't have made a nice Photoshop composite of this shot. I am an experienced photo retoucher/compositor with 20 years experience, and I can tell you that it is entirely possible to do, and look great, and not only great, but it could have even looked *better* had they done a "fake." Guess the White House retouching department is a little lacking. Come on peeps---think it through. It's 2009, not 1959.

[SgtJohnMStryker]

New Yorkers' are such rediculous and paranoid people to have caused this incident to escalate into a major national issue that utimately resulted in the firing of an Obama aide. Great Job New York! What stupidity of them.... Defense Secretary Gates clearly admitted that ALL appropriate notifications were conducted in a thorough manner... The incident went off as expected except for the idiots that are always looking to the sky for an apparent-- another attack..... New Yorkers want their freedoms, but don't want a war against the terrorists and the country's that wage war against America. Well Done again New York...... (Idiots)...

[Tom Halley]

"Mission"?!? Gimmick is more likely the fitting description. How absurd! Pay us back for the evident costs.

[Knute]

Could have gotten the same photo for maybe $10K and a copy of PhotoShop.

[Karl Dahlquist]

They could care less if it causes a panic among the simpletons....

[you big dummy]

"Sorry, we have to fire you because New Yorkers are stupid."

Can you imagine the conversations on the ground?

"OMG! Air Force One has been conquered by terr'ists!"
"This is just like that movie--what was it called?"
"Oh yeah, Airplane."

[dion]

For $100 I could of got three images AND PHOTOSHOPPED them together to make the above image possible.

[krazy]

" A White House aide joined the unemployment lines today"...I highly doubt this sacraficial lamb for the administration will be hurting. They probably cut a deal with him that if he took the fall for this he'd get a nice fat federal job, in the back of the pentagon somewhere, were his primary assingment will be to fill out crossword puzzles and the daily Jumbo every day. $250,000 starting no doubt. Just so the feds have a way to say "they took action". Big frickn' deal!

[puciret]

"But Gates also insisted that the appropriate agencies and air traffic controllers were told of the event. New York City officials have said they were asked not to inform the public beforehand."

This has to be the biggest lie since Bush declared there were WMDS in Iraq.

[The Descriptionist]

I work in downtown NYC, and this whole photo-op thing is much ado about nothing. The New York officials making noise want attention, the media is looking for the next big Obama "scandal", and the GOP needs anything it can use for ammo.

Perhaps the public has gotten so used to our Presidents and government creating scandal after scandal that we look for it everywhere now.

Trust me. Regular New Yorkers could care less about that plane and the photo op. Heck, a plane landed in the Hudson, and no one even cares about that here anymore.

[joe s.]

the plane was well above the skyline !

[EAW]

Is this the same Louis Caldera who was a board member of IndyMac Bank?

[Ron]

I lived in NYC and for the idiots who blame New Yorker's for panicking are the ignorant ones. Commercial aircraft, for obvious reasons of safety, does not fly over downtown Manhattan.

For the photo op they flew at a low altitude. Someone with a cam took pictures of AF-1 (you couldn't tell from the ground - only that is was a large commercial plane) from battery park with a jet in possible pursuit. From what I saw it looked alarming as did the audio.

People in tall buddings were terrified as the plane banked towards the skyscrapers.

Remarks like "New Yorkers are stupid" only show how the far left will blame fellow Americans before criticizing the Obama's administration.

[Fred Phil]

I lived in NYC and I'm familiar with battery park. I can tell you that no commercial aircraft flies anywhere near the lower Manhattan skyline.

On the news I saw the camcorder shot of Air Force One (no, you can't tell it's AF-1 from the ground angle)with a possible jet in pursuit. It was alarming as was the accompanying audio track.

It seems the far left would rather cast fellow Americans as being "stupid" before criticizing our beloved Obama administration and their act of stupidity.

[Gilby HI]

Boy o Boy with all that the president has done in the last 100 day you have to expect a few things will get past him. It is just a huge airplane dive bombing New York City, big deal, like that guy before me said New Yorker dont care about crashes and bombing and terrorism. If it is Obama its all good...

[visitatlanta]

The planes were in a well known no-fly zone. They were flying so low, office windows were rattling. New Yorkers had good reason to be scared. The White House made a shameful mistake.

[Bob Smythe]

I hate Obama. This is just another reason. Everyone knows Michelle and the girls were on that plane. But Barry won't admit it. Filthy bastard. When will the lies end?

[The artist]

NYC should sue the US gov't for the problems this caused.

[david wolfe]

I am wondering why everyone is missing the point. This is another whitewash by Obama. Although Louis Caldera may may have given the orders for the Manhattan flyover (which was indeed stupid), the buck stops at the top. Obama made Caldera Military Office Director to provide a way to circumvent the joint chief and others to do various jobs INCLUDING propagandistic photo ops to spread the jingoistic propagandistic image of Obama and this administration. Obama ordered to do photo ops for this administration and no doubt ok'd the Manhattan flyover. Caldera was doing his job. Something is totally warped about this administration and what is going on.... Marx failed at mobilizing the middle class in the Proletariat but Obama will try to do with his blackberry, twitter, dalily telepromptered press conferences, and his rhetorical style of stating declarative truths as if there really are truths. Wake up America. Obama taught constitutional law at UChicago so expect him to continue to try to change the fundamental idelas upon which this country was built. It also matters a lot who fills the open supreme court position .. just look at history e.g., liberal Brennan vs. traditional Rhenquist - Brennan believed that the law / constitution is a flexible living organism that can be warped to fit the direction the wind is blowing at the time while Rhenquist was a constituionalist believing that there are fundamental principles this country is built upon. The court is supposed to interpret the law in terms of the basic constitutional principles..

[Nojibijju]

Hahahaha, psych!!! Silly New Yorkers :)