The internet has been abuzz over a video that appears to show a United Airlines 747 flying quite close to the Golden Gate Bridge during an air show more than a week ago in San Francisco, California. Some have expressed amazement that it would come so near the structure.
But the plane wasn’t as close as the video makes it appear, and the flight was executed as planned along an air show flight path and under the direction of an air traffic controller, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said Tuesday.
And the plane never flew over the bridge as some might believe from watching the video, but rather it stayed well in front of it, a United Airlines spokeswoman says.
The video, recorded during Fleet Week’s October 9-10 air show, may make a viewer believe the plane was banking over the bridge. But FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said Tuesday the radar track shows the plane’s closest proximity to the bridge was 1,200 feet, and no regulations were broken. The camera position and lens make the plane look closer than it was.
“The [position] of the aircraft can be misleading, absent anything around it to give it proper depth perception,” he said.
The plane - like other planes in the airshow, which included U.S. Navy Blue Angels - remained in airspace approved for the show by the FAA, Fergus said. And the maneuver is nothing new, with United participating in previous Fleet Week air shows as well.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary,” Fergus said.
The video may appear to show the plane flying over the bridge, but a close examination shows jet wash distorting the bridge’s image, revealing that the plane was always on the same side of the bridge as the camera. It was always on the San Francisco Bay side, rather than the Pacific Ocean side, of the structure, CNN’s Chad Myers reported.
Several other planes, including the Blue Angels, took roughly the same path, United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said.
The air show is part of San Francisco’s Fleet Week, which honors the U.S. armed forces.
“We were proud to showcase one of our 747s in Fleet Week to celebrate our long standing partnership with the city of San Francisco,” McCarthy said in an e-mailed statement. “The fly-by was conducted as part of a well-publicized air show and with the utmost consideration to the safety of the public and the aircraft.”
CNN's Chad Myers and Deborah Doft contributed to this report.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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I will be flying United loyally now as I believe in THEIR belief that aviation is a great thing and that we must keep people engaged in it to continue making great pilots, engineers, business people and innovaters in the industry. And trust me, the last person that would want to envoke 9.11 would be United Airlines!
Ever see those pictures of tourists that pose in front of the Leaning Tower of Piza and act as if they are bracing it from falling? They are actually NOT touching the tower. There is in fact a great distance between them.
I would expect something like this from some cheesy local news station, not CNN.
Bravo to the new United Continental Holdings for reminding people everywhere that the 747 is every bit as majestic, world-changing, and awe-inspiring as any fighter jet or aerobatic aircraft out there...I'm sure every kid in that audience is hooked for life.
Dear Mr John Doe,
Ive seen a lot of terrified people in my life but you are simply the best example of what excess paranoia turns into. I live in Las Vegas and Nellis AFB hosts an airshow every year. It is one of the most strict security procedures I've been involved in. Someone getting access to a plane would amaze me. Having a plane come at the audience is exciting. It's scary to watch an A-10 dive and see the gun start rotating. The point is, how much do you trust our military and flight security? With your paranoia I'm surprised you can even ride a plane. It's been NINE, count them, years since the horrible events at 9/11. If you want to hide under a rock, then feel free to do so. Just don't try to drag everyone else with your constant fears of "terrorists" down with you.
In all the video I've seen, it's obvious that the airplane is far in front of the bridge. It descends in front of the bridge (so it cannot possibly be passing over it), and the relative size of the aircraft in relation to the bridge makes it obvious that the airplane is thousands of feet in front of it. It would have looked exactly the same to anyone watching it from the same position in real life.
Someone is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, sensationalizing a non-event into something scary. And with so many people afraid of their own shadows these days, it appears to have worked. If people are that afraid, maybe they should just stay home and hide beneath the bed and let the remaining people with backbones live their lives unmolested by their whimpering. If Americans had been this a-scared of everything seventy years ago, they'd all be speaking German today.
I was actually there watching the air show from Crissy Field in SF. The 747 came nowhere near the bridge at all. We were actually kind of disappointed it didn't do a barrel roll.
A large plane was 1200 feet from the architectural/structural icon of the West coast, given what happened to another icon on the East coast and this was a good idea? I bet a lot of folks in SF looking out their windows or 1200 ft from it on a bridge didn't think it such a good idea? Things have changed, it has nothing to do with being scared, just good judgment.
Airliners fly over populated areas every day, even in New York. How is this different?
what good judgement??? IT WAS AN AIR SHOW...
YOU KNOW....i hope....A SHOW WHERE AIRPLANES FLY LOW, CLOSE AND SHOW OFF THEIR ABILITIES, ETC.
no judgement needed......
you think people should be 'judgemental' because of a lemming thought process you have that will not let you get over a terrible incident??
you are definately one of the weakest links.....i think you and john doe should hook up.....you can tell each other your panicky lemming thoughts about all the lemming conecpts you cling to.......because of FEAR.
YOU ARE WEAK at best!
i think you deserve to feel frightened with such a closed, small minded ability to comprehend the most basic simple events in life......i guarantee you will always be afraid....
you are the typical lemming the terrorists were looking to influence.........
WOW.....i can't imagine how low self-esteem you must have or how gullible you must be to continue to be so afraid of events in life that you alter your perception of reality to fit your "doomsday" scenario that comes into your head anytime you see something like this.
lol...and i thought john doe was a VERY TIMID, SCARED LEMMING.....you've just raised the bar for him!!!
Ok West Coasties, you are making yourself sound incredibly stupid, AGAIN! Its a bridge....we have a lot of them here and planes fly over them all of the time. In Philly the bridges are in the flightpath to the airport, in NY its impossible not to fly over a bridge, same thing happens in Boston. Since most major cities are built on some sort of water way and most major cities have airports, planes fly over bridges probably about a thousand times a day. Darned paniky and scardy cat west coasties. Sorry I cant spell well... Plus on top of that, have you never seen an airshow? You know thse things that have been going on pretty much since man has been able to fly?
Go to San Diego some time and watch the aircraft as they approach from the east into the soup bowl they have to land in. The last couple of miles from Balboa Park to touchdown are spent a couple of hundred feet off the ground. All the while passengers can literally look into the apartments on either side of the flight path, and the tops of the buildings are higher than the plane.
Oh, by the way, this is done at LEAST a hundred times a day. Which brings up another point: do you REALLY think the pilots want to die too? No, they want to finish their day, go home, and have a beer just like you do.
So get a grip and THINK before you write!!
Terrorist attack? Its a frigging air show, geniuses!
Bin Laden is laughing, Mr Doe. He's won, that's what terrorism is intended to do, install fear. The only way to defeat terrorism is to deny the perpetrators their goal: which is to instill fear into the hearts of their victims.
Don't be a victim, Mr Doe. And, please. don't be a dick.
Bin Laden-1 JohnDoe-0
It's the idiot news channels publishing articles like this that is perpetuating the fear. Fear=ratings. Ratings-cash. They don't give a crap what they are really doing to us.
Americans are sooo funny! HA HA HA.
Oh, feel the love
Gimmicks and illusions meant to evoke controversy....I'd expect this from Fox not CNN.......
HUGE LOL's at the iTard imbecile of a panic attack JOHN DOE......
ummm.....if you're so afraid of seeing airplanes close to anything and you worry about them coming in to hit you as in a terrorist attack....then i have one suggesstion....
DON'T LOOK UP IN THE SKY U iTARD!
what kind of lemming fool would seriously be so panic stricken that this obvious show of a simple plane maneuver would cause them alarm??
well, i guess we know one idiot that is so scared about every day life events that he has to clamor on and on about how "....it makes people feel like a 9/11 terrorist attack."
anyone with at least half a functioning brain can tell this was not even near seeming to be an attack or even a remote chance of this being an act of terror.
you stupid lemming, you'll never get over it will you.........life sux...but at least you're PETRIFIED of it.....
good luck getting through tomorrow without a nervous breakdown or other mentally incapacitating symptoms.....
IT MUST REALLY SUK TO HAVE YOUR LAME, PANICKY BRAIN EVERYDAY!
AMEN!
Wow JohnDoe has got some serious issues and really should be sent to take some time and 'relax' in a white padded room. As soon as I saw this picture you can tell that this is no where near the bridge. As for the freaks worried about where the plane is flying, try living in the flight path of an airport, it happens all the time.
LMAO,
American people have no concept of space and perspective. go learn some physics people
Hi, I am an American, Thank you so much for the compliment. I mean if you think most American only need to learn Physics I think that is a compliment, because in my opinion they need to learn English, Math, Science, Rational Throught, to think for themselves.....and Much, MUCH more.
Spelling too. I throught i knew how to spell... HAHA, I kill me....