Word: craft
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...direct talks with Peking on any subject since 1949, when the mainland came under Communist control. And to some observers it signaled an unprecedented flexibility on the part of the Nationalist Chinese government. Under the accord, a crew from C.A.A.C. flew the plane to Hong Kong and turned the craft over to Taiwan. That represented a major concession by Peking's negotiators, who had originally demanded that Taiwan send a delegation to the mainland to pick up the jet. Taiwan rejected the proposal outright for fear that it might be misread as an implicit recognition of the Communist government...
...from a bizarre coincidence. The ministry said that the Sheffield's captain was on a communications hookup to naval headquarters at the precise moment an Argentine warplane fired an Exocet missile at the ship. The captain's unfortunately timed call had jammed the destroyer's radar system, allowing the craft to take a direct...
...HARM down the throat." Nor was any defense mounted by the Libyan air force, whose pilots are notoriously poor night flyers. Military intelligence intercepted a radio transmission of air force headquarters in Tripoli pleading with a base commander in Benghazi shortly before the attack to get his craft in the air. The commander's reply: immediate takeoff was impossible...
...performance of U.S. equipment was flawed. In an effort to prevent any bombing that might be deemed indiscriminate, U.S. airmen were under orders to abort their missions if on-board equipment showed the slightest glitch. Five of the 18 F-111 craft developed such malfunctions, probably in their radar targeting equipment, as did two of the carrier-based A-6 craft. Pentagon officials rightly maintain that the rules of engagement in wartime would not be as stringent as those for the Libyan mission, but the high rate of even minor malfunctions is hardly encouraging...
...bomb run completed, U.S. craft lifted quickly out of the Libyan light show and headed north. For the airmen flying the F-111s, that prospect included an additional eight hours' flying time and two more midair refueling operations. One last snafu occurred when one of the F-111s overheated and was diverted to a U.S. naval station near the Spanish town of Rota. When the rest of the crews returned to Britain after spending 15 hours strapped into the F- 111s' tight quarters, some men had to be lifted out of their seats...