The New York Police Department used its counterterrorism plane to fly Mayor Bill de Blasio back from his vacation in Canada for an event in the city Thursday.
He then used the plane to fly back to Quebec to finish his weeklong vacation, the New York Post reported. He flew to New York to attend a memorial for slain detective Miosotis Familia, one year after her death.
The $3 million plane has special sensors that can detect radioactive material used to make “dirty bombs.”
“It is very unusual to go on an international flight to go pick up the mayor,” one source told the news outlet. “I think it’s excessive, because that wasn’t what that plane was designed to do. It’s designed for counterterrorism measures. To go to Canada to get the mayor? It’s excessive.”
De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips confirmed to the Post the NYPD was transporting the mayor on its plane, adding that Thursday was the first time he had used the plane.
Neither the NYPD nor the mayor’s office would confirm to the Post the cost of the trip, whose decision it was to use the plane, or why de Blasio didn’t fly commercial.
