Not again! The military tried to take another pointless joy flight over the city yesterday, but this time, sanity prevailed.
A Navy base in Maine requested permission to let a veteran aviator fly his P-3 Orion patrol plane over the Hudson River as part of a retirement present — and initially, FAA officials said yes.
But as word spread to City Hall and to FAA higher-ups in Washington, officials told commanders at Naval Air Station Brunswick that they could not risk public panic for a going-away party.
Marc Mugnos, the same mid-level City Hall staffer who failed to notify the mayor of last month’s botched Air Force One photo op, this time made sure to fire off missives to his superiors, Mayor Bloomberg said.
“If you tell people they made a mistake, and work with them, the next time, hopefully, they don’t make the mistake,” he said.
FAA & BLOOMY SHOOT DOWN ANOTHER FOOLISH FLYOVER
The new flyover was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. — exactly two weeks after the Air Force One foul-up.
City Hall and the NYPD received word of the flight at 9:15 a.m.
“We did get on the phone with them and said we’d prefer to have a little more time,” Bloomberg said.
But when FAA officials in Washington got wind of the plan, “they informed the Navy that the flight was not approved and would not be allowed to fly the requested route,” the agency said.
Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum insisted the flight was routine.
“This was purely a training flight – the kind we have done more than 25 times since 2001,” she said. “It was not in any way related to someone’s retirement.”