I don't know anything about the particulars of this particular fly-over, but having spent a lot of time flying into/out of KJFK and KEWR I know from experience that the Terminal area of the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center is one of, if not the busiest and most congested Air Traffic area on the planet. You can fly all the way across the country, casually making calls and politely asking for vectors direct to spots hundreds of miles down the road, but the instant you get switched to New York Center, it is immediately some ultra busy New York controller with a Bronx accent telling you to immediately turn here, descend now, maintain such and such a speed, traffic at your such and such O'clock, and "listen up people!", etc.
What I mean by this is that this is a very demanding, congested environment, and you don't simply zip on up from Andrews and lackadaisically ask NY Center for a low fly by over downtown Manhattan for a photo-op, even if you are Air Force 1. This has to take massive coordination from a whole string of higher ups in the White House, The FAA, and The East Coast ATC hierarchy, and if any of our MSM talking heads or Gibbs try to paint this as anything other than that then I call BULLS__T! According to this 2009 report, <http://www.nycp.org/publications/2009_0225_airport_congestion.pdf> "JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia rank as the country's most congested airports. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), only two-thirds of departures from these airports left on time in 2007, and even fewer arrivals met the schedule. Nearly three-quarters of nationwide delays are ultimately attributable to problems originating in the New York region's airspace, which handles about one-third of the nation's flights. These delays cascade and affect flights at airports throughout the global system." Simply go to Google and enter "Air Traffic Congestion" in New York" to find plenty of 2009 stories like this one <http://gothamist.com/2009/02/25/air_traffic_delays_are_costing_new.php>, showing how traffic delays cost the economy 2.6 Billion in losses last year. This may make a 400 dollar haircut on the tarmac at LAX look cheap by comparison. Posted by: daddy | April 28, 2009 at 04:14 PM <http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2009/04/making-movies.html?cid=6a00d83451b2aa69e20115705a76d8970b#comment-6a00d83451b2aa69e20115705a76d8970b> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
