Photos: Air Force One’s Botched NYC Flyover

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Remember that horribly planned photo op the Air Force staged in April over lower Manhattan so they could have a new stately picture of Air Force One flying over the Statue of Liberty? The one the Air Force forgot to tell New York officials about, which led to a bit of a panic when un-warned New Yorkers saw a giant airplane and two F-16 fighter jets flying low near the tip of the island?

Well, the DoD has finally released the pictures from that morning, and IĀ must say, they’re not very impressive. The Air Force photographer snapped 146 photosā€”you can see them all here in the PDF the DoD releasedā€”and I’ve picked out the best one for you. It’s fine, but I still think the photo the Air Force wanted to replace with the Statue of Liberty flyoverā€”Air Force One flying over Mount Rushmoreā€” is much more impressive.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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