Word: aircraft
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When Richard Lent, a tax lawyer, boarded an 8 a.m. Eastern Air Lines shuttle in Washington bound for New York City last week, he took a seat in the rear section of the plane and, mindful of his rights, demanded that his area on the filled aircraft be designated a nonsmoking section. The flight attendants obliged, but some passengers apparently did not hear the ensuing announcement. When a few lit up, Lent lashed out. The fuming smokers decided they would rather fight than switch. Then, according to one flight attendant, "The screaming, yelling and hollering, shoving and insults really started...
...closer look at the scenery. All the while, the cabin crew kept the sightseers plied with plentiful food and drink. Lunch offered a choice of Tournedos Rossini or Chicken Sauvaroff, plus a special meringue dessert named Peach Erebus. That dish was to be served as the aircraft passed one of the most spectacular sights of the trip: 12,400-ft. Mount Erebus, the polar region's largest volcano, located on Ross Island off the Antarctic coast. (Erebus in Greek mythology was the son of Chaos and represented unfathomable darkness...
...dessert was probably never served. Sometime after 2 p.m., when radio contact with the aircraft was lost, the three-engine jet rammed into the snow covered side of Mount Erebus and exploded. Nine hours later, search aircraft from the nearby U.S. airbase at McMurdo Sound spotted the wreckage strewn over a quarter-mile area of the steep slope at 2,500 ft. Despite blizzard conditions, three New Zealand mountaineers managed to land at the scene by helicopter; they confirmed that there were no survivors at the site that rescue volunteers later described as "a hellhole...
...fourth most serious aviation tragedy,* was the third DC-10 disaster this year. It thus raised initial apprehensions about another possible mechanical failure like the faulty engine mounting that caused the U.S.'s worst single air disaster in Chicago last May. However, there was no evidence that the aircraft was defective. Though the exact cause of the crash remained undetermined at week's end, suspicions centered on possible pilot error. Captain Jim Collins, 45, was a flyer of 21 years' experience with a reputation for being "the epitome of a non-risk taker...
...moving fast across the southern desert near the Mauritanian border somewhere between Bir Anzaran and El Aargub, was an impressive sight. Armored cars and tanks, halftracks and armored personnel carriers, trucks and Jeep-type vehicles, churned across the sands as far as the eye could see. With light reconnaissance aircraft pointing the way, the battalions roared by in long columns. Supply trucks and gasoline tankers were tucked safely into the middle of the convoy, with a Jeep battalion covering flanks and rear. The cloud of dust raised by the vehicles was almost enough to lay a shadow across the burning...