The Flyover in Jersey City

So, this morning I went to go get my coffee at Legal Grounds. As I am walking back to Sussex street to begin the day writing Appellate briefs, the biggest plane I ever saw was directly above me, as loud a plane as you can possibly imagine and so low flying it gave me chills. I ran into the middle of the street to get a better look, possibly as low as the tallest building in Jersey City, the Goldman Sachs building, it crossed my mind this might not be by accident. It also occurred to me the plane looked a lot like Air Force I, though minutes before I saw the new President on the television screen,not in the air. A plane flew next to it, what looked like a fighter plane, an F-16? Maybe they caught Dick Cheney and Obama is giving him a scolding?

I walked up the stairs to see my partner, visibly shaken running from the bedroom (home sick) and asking me what the F$@^! is going on out there. Exasperated, I said I didn't know and then heard it circle and come back and I ran to the window to see it again, turning toward the south headed directly for the Statue of Liberty. We also heard many screams and the sounds of running feet at the waterfront in Jersey City, it seemed people were alarmed at the flight, like me. I asked myself, could this be a plane carrying the swine influenza? Seriously, watching the panic in the reporters eyes asking the CDC questions might have added to my own panic. It circled again, but then in an instant disappeared. I turned on the television, but nothing until about 2 PM and at the press briefing on the pandemic a reporter asked about the plane and wondered if this was a good idea to alarm the very victims who suffered during 9/11. Ya think.

Turns out it was a pre-planned photo op by a couple of bozos which caused evacuations at the buildings at the World Trade Center and in the financial district in Jersey City (many of these people transferred to Jersey City after the tragedy of 9/11), about three blocks from my house. Not the FAA's best day, nor the police who were told "not to alarm the public" with this information. Huh? I can tell you I was very alarmed at the sight of these planes, one absolutely breathtaking to look at and a bit unnerved; along with the sound I don't think New Yorkers will ever be able to relinquish - it rattled me for at least an hour. Just another example of government thinking the little peons don't need to know information. Just imagine what it has been like to live in Baghdad or Gaza the last few years?