The Crowded Sky Author:Hank Searls In San Diego, California, a Navy Jet takes off heading east to Washington. In Washington, D.C., a commercial passenger flight takes off at almost the same moment. Destination: San Diego. — In Amarillo, Texas, ground traffic control experiences of those dreaded nights - heavy air traffic and freakish storms. Strictly instrument-flight weather when... more » pilots must depend upon control and follow instructions implicitly.
In a few hours, the two planes are to pass within one thousand feet of each other. But sometimes they don't - sometimes the thread of communication snaps - and human frailty combines with mechanical limitations to create - disaster.« less