Obama aircraft panics New York

A Boeing 747 used as back-up jet flew very low over the city triggering fears of another 9/11-style attack

Obama aircraft panics New York

A Boeing 747 used as back-up jet flew very low over the city triggering fears of another 9/11-style attack

A Boeing 747 used as a back-up to Air Force One by US President Barack Obama flew low over New York City

yesterday morning accompanied by two fighter jets, briefly raising fears among workers in skyscrapers of a terrorist attack.

The aeroplane, used by Obama as a back-up to Air Force One, was escorted over lower Manhattan by two F-16 fighters, so government photographers could capture images above New York harbour.

But the low-flying planes raised fears that the city was under a September 11-style terrorist attack and workers from several downtown office buildings poured out onto the streets before they learned that the flights were innocuous.

John Leitner, a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, said about 1,000 people "went into a total panic" and ran out of the building at around 10 am after seeing the planes whiz by their building, near the World Trade Centre site.

"Apparently, nobody in the building was informed that this was going to happen," he said. "Everyone panicked, as you can certainly understand."

He said the workers gathered along the Hudson River until a security officer with a bullhorn told them it was a planned exercise.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the government was taking photographs of an Air Force F-16 jet and the larger aeroplane, a defence department version of the 747 that is called Air Force One when the president is aboard. It said it notified city law enforcement about the mission.

The New York Police Department said the flight "was authorised by the FAA for the vicinity of the Statue of Liberty, with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it, but to direct all inquiries to the FAA".

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