Word: aircrafting
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Private Pilot Jim Campbell, flying at 1,500 ft. near Los Angeles, could not believe his eyes. Looking up, he saw a flash of light 1 1/2 miles off to the left of his aircraft. The fireball turned into a plume of black smoke, and Campbell watched in horror as a huge DC-9 airliner dropped its nose and rolled to its left. Twisting upside down, the wounded aircraft picked up speed as it plunged toward earth. "Oh!" shouted Campbell to himself. "Pull her up. Pull her up. Oh, pull...
...Lauber, heading the investigation for the National Transportation Safety Board, reported that the controller said he did not recall seeing the Piper's blip. Even if he had seen it, said Lauber, "if he doesn't have altitude information, then it's a reasonable assumption for him that the aircraft is not operating in the terminal control area...
...caught in the random gunfire. Arun Athavale, of El Toro, Calif., saw a family of four sprayed by bullets but could not tell whether any survived. Athavale, who escaped injury by falling to the floor, said later, "Most of the people who got killed didn't duck." Outside the aircraft, people were walking around in a daze, too shocked to realize they were among the ones who had been spared...
None of the passengers were certain that the hijackers saw commandos near the aircraft. But once the lights were off, the hijackers gave every sign of preparing for battle. One was heard telling a comrade, "The moment for the last jihad (holy war) has arrived. If we are killed, we will all be martyrs...
...National Guard fulfills an equally critical function. It has been assigned almost full responsibility for the defense of the continental U.S. against enemy air strikes. Kept on 24-hour alert, the Air Guard flies 78% of all the interceptor aircraft in the U.S. inventory. In any call to large-scale combat, the Air Guard would handle 49% of all tactical air-support missions...