A long-distance photo of the plane and banner
By now you’ve probably heard about the plane that was flown over NYC today with a flowing banner behind it reading: “THANKS FOR THE DOWNGRADE. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED.”
Fortune magazine’s Dan Primack learned who flew the plane: It was a Lucy Nobbe, a vice president with Wedbush Morgan Securities. Nobbe is a single mother from St. Louis who is angry with Wall Street and Washington and wanted to vent her frustration:
“I originally wanted to fly it over Washington, D.C., but learned that you can’t do that,” says the banker, who asked to remain anonymous for job security reasons [She revealed herself subsequently—RM]. “So I chose Wall Street instead, but didn’t specifically intend it to fly over S&P. I’m just a mother from St. Louis who feels the only reason we got downgraded was people in politics.”
More from Foster Kamer at The Observer:
A friend of the woman who flew the plane who requested anonymity spoke to the Observer by phone, confirming that her friend is in fact a single mother of two from St. Louis. We were told she is an investment banker (Fortune noted her as a “broker”) and as her friend explained to us, “she woke up pissed about everything in Washington, especially now with the downgrade.” She wanted to fly it over D.C. but she couldn’t because of the restricted airspace; her original intent wasn’t to fly the plane “at” Wall Street, per se.
“She’s not mad at S & P, she’s mad at Washington D.C. She called me up to have me talk her out of it, and of course, I didn’t,” her friend noted, “because I think it’s funnier than shit.” According to her friend, the woman “does not have a lot of discretionary cash as others are saying. She’s a single mother of two. She’s been working and paying taxes since she was 16 years old.”
Is she of any particular political persuasion? “Nope,” her friend notes. “Not really. It’s directed at Washington. The Republicans, Democrats, President. Not at S & P.” We noted—as we’ve heard from friends, colleagues, and sources that the banner is likely making quite a few people smile.
“I think she’d be happy to hear that. She can’t reveal herself because she doesn’t want to lose her job, obviously,” her friend noted, “but I think she’d be happy to hear that.”