Quote:
Originally Posted by Fletch XXX
(Post 15793313)
While I won't argue the credibility of an airport official, its been reported building, offices, stores were evacuated, people were fleeing offices and building.
In a place as densely populated as that, why would it be so far from the truth?
Panic spreads quicker than the swine flu, thats for sure. All reports indicate mass panic,...
People in new jersey, not even just New York:
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The truth is some anonymous airport "official" made a comment and someone decided to print it because it was interesting. How exactly did he arrive at that figure ("millions!". let me guess ... He MADE IT UP. Completely made it up. That's all. He didn't count, estimate, mention 911 calls or anything like that.
You know those huge events where there are hundreds of thousands of people on the streets. Like The Million Man March (cough cough) or Obama's inaguration. Even when you can see all the people from the helicopters the estimated crowd counts can differ by factors of 4 or 5. Was it a million? Was it 500,000? Was it 300,000? Years later there is no disagreement.
So if people whose job it is to count crowds can't agree on how many people they are looking at to within a factor of 4 I'd say it is pretty ridiculous to take with any degree of accuracy some loose-lipped airport employee who thinks that maybe, just maybe, because a number of people ran into the streets in the financial district (working population of 300,000) that there were then MILLIONS of people who panicked city-wide.
But let's see. What kind of accurate "panicked crowd reports" are in the news so far?
"About 1,000 workers gathered along the Hudson River esplanade until a security officer with a bullhorn told them it was a planned exercise." OK, 1000.
"Hundreds of workers ran from the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning." Oh, maybe it was 100s.
"John Leitner, a floor trader at the New York Mercantile Exchange Building, said about 1,000 people ?went into a total panic? and ran out of the building around 10 a.m." Or, ok. 1000s again.
Note all 3 were at the same location. Maybe it was 1000s. Maybe it was "hundreds". Damn, eyewitnesses.
Let's moveon. Maybe it was pandaemonium at the Stock Exchange?
"Down at the New York Stock Exchange, where stocks briefly tumbled, trader Ted Weisberg said the low-flying plane caused a brief scare". Hmm, a "brief scare". Frightening. "The New York Stock Exchange said it did not evacuate. " Oh. Well. Quite scary.
Let's check with FOX!
"A Jersey City businesswoman told FOX News it looked like the plane was going to hit her building. She said everyone in her office ran down the stairs and joined thousands of people lining the Hudson River."
Hmmm, "Everyone in her office". They ran and joined the "thousands lined up along the river". hey, that's the same 1000 we met earlier! Or was it hundreds.
Seem like a panicked million man march to you? Seems like a few thousand, maybe. Despite the population density statistics.
