Air Force jets' N.Y. flyover cost over $300,000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Air Force flyover that caused panic among some people in New York last month cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $357,000, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a letter to Senator John McCain released on Friday.

Gates, providing details demanded by McCain in the wake of the incident, said the cost of a jumbo jet that is used as the president's plane Air Force One was estimated between $300,658 and $328,835.

The cost of two accompanying F-16 jets was $28,177 for a total of $357,012, Gates said.

The flight over lower Manhattan for a photo-shoot scared some New Yorkers who remember the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 involving hijacked airliners. Some people panicked and evacuated office buildings when the planes flew over.

The Air Force's presidential airlift group planned the April 27 flight in part to get pictures of the planes flying with the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline as a backdrop.

Gates said in his letter that the reaction to the low-flying planes was understandable and "we deeply regret the anxiety and alarm that resulted from this mission."

President Barack Obama was said to have been furious about the incident and had ordered an internal review. The mission had been approved by the White House military aide, Louis Caldera, who apologized.

Gates said the photo-shoot was only part of the planes' mission, which also included practice instrument approaches and landings at Atlantic City International Airport.

The entire mission had been coordinated with officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and air traffic control representatives in the New York area, he wrote.