The appearance of multiple low-flying military jets over Lawrence Friday morning rattled many residents.

One caller — of many — to the Journal-World said the planes were so low that he could see details of the cockpit’s underside. He said he saw four jets make two very loud passes over Lawrence before flying off.

Later Friday, Dan Beckler, a spokesman for Kansas Athletics, told the Journal-World that the jets were preparing Friday for a flyover during the KU-Oklahoma football game on Saturday.

Other callers said they felt panicked because there was no notice of the flyover and they had no way of discovering its purpose.

Lawrence resident Rachelle Rasing Patterson said the sudden loud appearance of war planes — with no notice — in “today’s political climate” was appalling.

“In a time when the president is talking about civil war?” she said.

She said she didn’t object to a “fun” flyover at the game but that residents deserved some warning of what happened on Friday morning.

When the Journal-World asked KU’s Office of Public Affairs whether the flyover was related to KU, KU’s director of News and Media Relations, Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, said it was not related to KU. Beckler later confirmed that it was.

Later KU acknowledged via Twitter that it had “dropped the ball” by not providing any notice: “Jayhawks – those loud noises you heard over campus earlier this morning were F-16 pilots practicing for a flyover for tomorrow’s football game. Normally we provide advance notice of these events, but we dropped the ball this time. We know that’s important — and we’re sorry!”