Losing It: Why Self-Control Is Not Natural

Healing

The full moon rises above the tree tops in Moreland Hills, Ohio. AP Photo/Amy Sancetta

 

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A "furious" President Obama has ordered a review of the decision to fly a Boeing 747 frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

 

The review will focus on "why that decision was made and to ensure that it never happens again," Gibbs said. Jim Messina, a deputy chief of staff, will lead the effort.

 

On Tuesday, Obama told reporters, "It was a mistake. It was something we found out about along with all of you. And it will not happen again." Officials said that when Obama first found out about the incident, he was "furious." The incident has led to a large amount of criticism from New Yorkers and politicians.

 

After a YouTube video showed panicked New Yorkers scrambling as the plane flew frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, a former Homeland Security adviser questioned whether the man who approved the flyby should remain in his White House office. Fran Townsend, who advised President George W. Bush for more than three years, called the move "crass insensitivity" in the wake of 9/11. "I'd call this felony stupidity.

 

This is probably not the right job for Mr. Caldera to be in if he didn't understand the likely reaction of New Yorkers, of the mayor," Townsend said Tuesday on CNN's "American Morning.