Word: preflight
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...scramble at a dozen air bases, Scud missiles armed with nerve-gas warheads would slam into the tarmac, effectively shutting down operations. At bases like Osan, the huge U.S. air base 25 miles south of Seoul, North Korean commandos would suddenly appear and shoot up the base's preflight briefing room, killing pilots and disrupting the counterattack...
...worst offenders are the domestic carriers. For a bribe of about 20,000 rubles on top of the price of the ticket, most attendants and pilots will be only too happy to accommodate latecomers by jamming the aisles and cargo bins with standing room only. On many flights, preflight safety briefings are nonexistent; smoking is permitted before, during and after takeoff; access to emergency exits and even the toilets is blocked by everything from sacks of potatoes to wire cages filled with twittering birds...
...STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND," said the chief engineer, "why that explosive cord wasn't detected on the preflight check...
...With that timid move, he became the first member of his endangered species to return from captivity to the wild. Minutes later, his nestmate Xewe and two young Andean condors sent along as companions emerged. The birds jumped up and down and flapped their immense wings in an apparent preflight dance while jubilant naturalists watching from distant cliffs poured champagne...
...shot. The earth comes spiraling up at us as we regain airspeed. Too late. The enemy is on me now, and I'm in his gunsight. ("Lose sight and you lose the fight. You can't shoot what you can't see," Blackstone had warned in his preflight briefing.) "Break left, break left," yells Dooley. There is a signal tone that tells me I've been hit. Now I am trailing smoke. I'm a goner...