Word: piloted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Force radar-killing F-16CJs scour the skies for electronic clues betraying a SAM radar. As you plunge deeper over enemy territory between 15,000 and 25,000 ft., there's an aerial ballet taking place far above: a layer of F-15Cs ensuring that no Serbian pilot gets close enough to take a shot...
...working. NATO pilots rarely fly below 10,000 ft. for fear of being shot down. Proof of the havoc that can wreak could be seen last Wednesday, when a U.S. F-16 apparently fired on what the pilot thought was a military convoy from 15,000 ft.--nearly three miles up. Unfortunately, his laser-guided bomb obliterated a tractor and wagon carrying Albanian Kosovars. Belgrade said 75 people died...
...defenses been crippled, the pilot could have flown closer to that target, seen it was civilian and aborted the strike and the resulting global horror it provoked. A fellow F-16 pilot, from the 555th Fighter Squadron at Aviano, call sign "Buster," was frustrated by the snafu. "The last thing we want to do," the major says, "is help Milosevic do his job." But mixing Serbian troops with Albanian civilians has been part of Milosevic's strategy. Buster says he has seen "truck, truck, tractor, military, military, bus" convoys. "They're using Albanians as shields," he says, "and that makes...
...rollercoaster ride--only you don't know when it's going to end. The flight attendant's voice comes on to assure you that it's just turbulence, that everything is under control. You're a little shaky, but you probably go back to sleep, thinking the pilot is in control...
...Pentagon officials, some of whom still suspect that Serb forces killed the civilians, now say that the pilot was describing another military convoy he had struck. "It wasn't handled well," a senior administration aide said of NATO's response to the tragedy. NATO knew there would be civilian casualties during the air war, and when they occurred, "we had all agreed we wouldn't jump the gun and say things" before knowing for sure who was responsible, said the aide. Clark's gaffe handed Belgrade a propaganda windfall: a tragic accident that became a weeklong media flap over NATO...