When New Yorkers looked outside their windows last week, they couldn’t believe their eyes.  Flying low and flanked by an F-16 fighter jet was a 747 airplane. As the two planes approached, they saw that the F-16 wasn’t trailing just any 747, but rather Air Force One and that it was heading right for Manhattan. Their thoughts immediately raced to 9/11, and scared that this plane would also fly into a tall building, they fearfully dropped everything and ran.

Hundreds of people, both in Manhattan and elsewhere in New York, called 911 to report the low flying planes, panic and worry evident in their voices.

Little did they know that what they thought was another terrorist attack was really a poorly thought out photo op in which the Defense Department wanted a shot of Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty as a back drop.

Mayor Bloomberg was outraged, as was President Obama, neither of whom had been told about the photo op.

And to add insult to injury, it is estimated that the photo op cost taxpayers $328,835. Couldn’t they have used Photoshop, as photographer Scott Kelby did, and saved us both the money (especially in this economy!) and the anxiety?