cryptogon.com

A “furious” Mayor Bloomberg denounced the dunces who dreamed up the stunt – and the NYPD officials and bureaucrats who never told him about it.

By day’s end, an obscure City Hall deputy named Marc Mugnos, who makes $60,000 a year, was taking the fall for not telling Bloomberg that the low-flying planes were coming. He was reprimanded.

But there was plenty of blame to go around.

Louis Caldera, the director of the White House military office who sent Air Force One and the fighter jet on an “aerial photo mission,” got slammed by an angry President Obama.

“I approved a mission over New York,” Caldera said in a hastily prepared statement. “I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”

Obama was not on the flight.

Sources said the chief reason for the panic-inducing flight was to create souvenir pictures of Air Force One flying over the Statue of Liberty to be given out – like a presidential tie clip – to family, friends or supporters.

Air Force One has done flyovers of historic sites and monuments like Mount Rushmore and the Golden Gate Bridge for PR glam shots – at taxpayer expense.

Told to stay quiet about mission

Caldera did not state a reason for the “mission” in his apology, but he insisted that “federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey.”

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said the department was told of the “aerial photo mission” last Thursday but was ordered to stay quiet about it. But they did alert 911 operators at 7 a.m. to tell callers it was an authorized military mission, he said.