I'll tell you what, I'll put my 28 years in the USAF (4 with F-16s) and personal work with Combat Camera folks against your knowledgeable "someone" any day.
However, I must reject the "official" word that this event was a "photo op." My common sense has been too reliable a guide over the years for me ignore it now. There was no reason to keep this thing secret and unannounced -- on the contrary, notifying the NYC public that it was scheduled could easily have been a wonderful PR thing for Obama. From the camera standpoint, I've only see one F-16 in the photos and videos, and it is always flying either closely beside or directly behind, AF1; the other F-16 isn't evident, and you'd think it would be if the idea was to get pics of AF1 with Lady Liberty and the NYC skyline. Neither one of the F-16s, from film I've seen, were in locations that made sense for photography. But I admit that I don't know or haven't seen where the other one was during the event.
No, the most dubious factor is the secrecy thing. Supposedly NYC officials were notified well in advance and told to keep it under their hats, and in that time, not a peep leaked out, not even a rumor, of it happening. WHY? For a dramatic, clearly potentially traumantic event, timed at the height of workday scheduling on a Monday morning??? Puh-leeeze.
Why the secrecy, when making it public to an Obama-adoring NYC populace, the reassuring prospect of this time our SAFE and FRIENDLY President's plane in the city, for a very reasonable, legit, and non-partisan purpose (not even Republicans could object, and I certainly wouldn't) purpose of getting nice updated stock photos of the plane with the city in the background.
This wasn't a photo op, and it defies common sense to think it was. It was either a) a secret operation with "photo op" as the cover story to be announced after the fact because announcing it ahead of time would have sabotaged the operation, OR b) a rogue event by who knows who, for who knows what purpose -- but something no one knew about in advance, not Obama, not the DOD, nor NYC officials. In a desperate and hasty cover-our-ass response, the "photo op" cover was used and NYC officials were either forced or convinced to claim that they were notified in advance.
If this was a legit "photo op" simply bungled by a narcissitic administration or negligent DOD, then Michelle Obama really has blue eyes and freckles underneath that dark tan and brown contact lenses.