Posted on Leave a comment

Spectators Watch Obama Fly in, out at TF Green Airport

Warwick, RI – When President Barack Obama’s plane landed at T.F. Green Airport promptly at 6:10 p.m. Friday, small groups of people were gathered along the air field’s fence and businesses on Airport Road to watch.

“This is so exciting,” said Denise Galligan of Cranston, there with her friend, Barbara Calagni, visiting from Florida.

“He is punctual,” Calagni said.

“It’s just exciting to see the President coming in,” Galligan said.

The pair, stationed near Airport Plaza, were among several small groups of people who staked out the airport fence on Airport road for a glimpse of the Chief Executive’s plane – likely too small to be Air Force One, according to popular consensus.

Further down the road, across the street from Hooters, where groups of two and three parked watched from car lots, four people got right up to the fence.

Bob and Maureen Masse of Warwick, adjunct professors at Bristol Community College and CCRI, didn’t think the President’s plane, bearing “United States of America” across its fuselage, was big enough to have been Air Force One. (it was likely a simply a smaller version of the President’s usual ride, as the call sign “Air Force One” applies to any plane carrying the President.

Nearby, Thomas Desmaris and Joe Davey, the latter with a zoom-equipped digital SLR camera, agreed the plane couldn’t have been the President’s usual conveyance. They did spot three Osprey helicopters and two  VH-60N “WhiteHawk” helicopters, one of which would’ve been dubbed Marine One, assuming Obama was riding in it.

All five aircraft were in the air within 30 minutes, headed south, presumably toward a Newport fundraiser, according to a report from the Providence Journal.

 

Rob Borkowski
Author: Rob Borkowski

Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at [email protected] with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.

This is a test