CHARDON, Ohio -- A low-flying aircraft the day after the Sept. 11 anniversary scared hundreds of people in Chardon, who bombarded 911 dispatchers with calls for help.

Video

Plane On Tape

A man who lives in Chardon caught the aircraft on his video camera, and NewsChannel5's Adam Shapiro reported that it's a case of bad timing for the people who own the plane.

By all accounts, more than 200 emergency phone calls poured into Geauga County 911 on Thursday when the aircraft flew low over Chardon.

"There is an airplane flying really low; do you know something about it?" one caller said.

"What on earth is this thing? It's flying really slow, but it doesn't look like there's any propellers on it," another caller said.

It turned out that the plane was owned by Alcoa. The company has apologized verbally to village administrators, and they plan to send a letter of apology.

According to air traffic controllers, the plane was flying at a legal height -- 1,000 feet.

"So they simply called us as a matter of courtesy to say to us, 'We are sorry. We didn't realize it was thoughtless and senseless. We didn't think it was the day after 9/11 and people would be excited about what was happening here,'" said Randy Sharpe, an assistant to the Chardon city manager.

Alcoa told NewsChannel5 that the flight "lacked sensitivity and judgment in light of the dangerous world we live in today." But the company said it doesn't know why the plane was over Chardon in the first place.

"I can't think of anything else they can do, but definitely an apology is necessary, because it did scare a lot of people," said Dawn Ciferno, a Chardon resident.

Alcoa promised that it won't ever happen again, but the people in Chardon wish it never would have happened in the first place.

Chardon village administrators are turning the tape over to the Federal Aviation Administration for further investigation.