Officials from the Massachusetts Port Authority issued an apology Wednesday after conducting a fire training exercise at Boston Logan International Airport on the 12th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

"The fire department will be training this morning. Smoke on the airfield is part of the training," the airport's Twitter account announced.

In response to negative reactions on social media sites, the port authority, which operates the airport, said in a statement, "Massport apologizes for conducting the fire training exercise and understands that it may have offended many of those touched by the events of Sept. 11."

"It's just dumb," Gov. Deval Patrick said. "The timing could not be worse."