Opinion

PLANE DUMB

The Federal Aviation Administration seems to see the public as Enemy No. 1. Why else, after all, would it re peatedly hide information about potentially dangerous situations — as well as those that appear to be, but actually aren’t?

AIR HEADS IN DC TERRORIZE CITY

Yesterday, for example, the FAA (in conjunction with the White House Military Office) staged a “photo-op” featuring flights by an F-16 Falcon jet fighter and an Air Force One back-up plane over the Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan and parts of New Jersey.

But — inexplicably — the agency in sisted the event be kept secret.

So when the aircraft made several very low-altitude passes over the harbor — well, memories were triggered.

Memories of that morning seven-plus years ago when jets flying low over Manhattan were intent on mass murder.

Not surprisingly, yesterday’s exercise sparked panic.

Workers scrambled out of their office buildings, thinking the worst. Calls to emergency hotlines flooded in.

Even Mayor Bloomberg was caught unawares: “I’m annoyed — furious is a better word — that I wasn’t told,” Hizzoner fumed. Terrific.

An FAA spokesman, Jim Peters, defended the event, calling it “a planned, pre-approved military flight over New York to take photos.” He said it was “pre-coordinated with everyone involved, including the city.”

Except that an FAA memo specifically warned officials that if they released information about the flights to the public or the press, they’d be violating the law.

It even cited a specific statute.

The director of the White House Military Office, Louis Caldera, later apologized: “While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities . . . it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”

But, hey: These folks don’t just hide information so as to needlessly trigger alarm; it also keeps secrets concerning problems the public clearly needs to know about — like the rate of birds striking planes.

After geese brought Flight 1549 down in the Hudson last January, the FAA refused to release relevant data about such incidents.

Later, the agency relented under pressure, and it turned out that bird collisions at JFK were actually on the rise.

Indeed, Kennedy is America’s most at-risk airport when it comes to bird strikes. La Guardia and Newark are tied for 16th-most-dangerous.

The FAA had long preferred to keep passengers ignorant of these dangers. Better to have people panic, it seems, at the sudden sight of low-flying aircraft over Lower Manhattan.

Someone needs to straighten out these folks — quick.