Today wasn’t a very good one for President Obama. First his favorite teleprompter let him down, and then an innocent little photo-op sent many New Yorkers running for the hills:

An Air Force One lookalike and two F-16s buzzed the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor this morning, halting work on nearby construction sites, causing resident and office workers to flee their high-rises and giving thousands of people in downtown Manhattan and New Jersey a major fright. At least two people were treated for minor injuries at Jersey City Medical Center after falling during the rush to exit their high-rises.

“Everybody panicked,” said Daisy Cooper, a Merrill Lynch worker in Jersey City, who lost a nephew on 9/11. “Everybody was screaming and we all ran downstairs. I’m devastated…Everybody was running, we didn’t know why we were running. We just knew it was a plane, there we go, 9/11 again.”…

A Pentagon official confirmed that while the Presidential Airlift Group, which is based out of Andrews Air Force Base, did inform the FAA and New York City officials about this morning’s aerial photo op. But they also told both agencies not to inform the public about it. The NYPD confirmed this.

Apparently the wonderful idea of using SAM 29000 to buzz the Big Apple came from the White House, or at the very least the White House approved the idea:

White House Military Office director Louis Caldera issued a brief statement.

“Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,” he said. “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, its clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”…

An administration official said the Federal Aviation Administration was informed this would be taking places, and notified Mr. Bloomberg’s office on April 22.

The problem was the FAA was told the information was classified and did not alert the press to warn the public.

Here’s video of the flyby near the Goldman Sachs building.

Air Force One is probably the most recognizable aircraft in the world, but based on the video I don’t think there’s any way that I would have recognized it coming in. Not to mention the fact that I would have been too busy running.

h/t to AP at HotAir