“We are in a knife fight for every viewer,” he says often, and: “We are on the battleground.” So, this winter, as Blizzard Nemo was bearing down on New York City, Griffi n bunkered his top executives at the downtown Ritz Carlton for the cable news version of a military training exercise. And not one of those fancy modern wars fought by drones and computer hackers, either. Its nose looked as if a wrecking ball had smacked it.To MSNBC president Phil Griffi n, news is war. The right one lay in the water, canting the aircraft thirty degrees. The 737’s left wing sat on the stanchion. The tail of the aircraft rose before slamming down, sending out a shower of water. The plane continued forward, its nose canted down, for another two hundred feet before it collided with the second stanchion. Parts of the engine cowling ripped away as if from an explosion. The airplane was airborne for two hundred feet, then smashed through the first set of approach-light stanchions. “Shit!” Sanchez braced himself against the counter as if he were in the airplane. He glanced back in time to see Omega slide off the end of runway four. “United 549, fly heading three four zero. Sanchez confirmed visually that United 549 was in a climb, retracting its landing gear, before he spoke into his boom microphone. The other controllers pivoted their heads to the end of runway four. “Omega 918 is going off the end of the runway.” He raised his voice to get the attention of the other six controllers. Sanchez curled his toes as if pressing on the brakes of the aircraft, willing it to stop. The last two thousand feet was built out over Flushing Bay, with a twenty-foot drop to the water. It appeared to be going too fast to stop on the remaining runway. Omega continued through the intersection and raced toward the end of the pavement. There was the potential for a collision, or the runway being contaminated from the debris from Omega’s tire. Runway four, which the Omega aircraft barreled down, intersected runway three-one. United Airlines Flight 549 crossed the end of runway three-one and began its flare to slow its descent rate for landing. Then, slots in the sides of the two jet engines opened and the nose of the airplane dipped, indicating the crew rejected the takeoff. LaGuardia Airport air traffic controller Sanchez Lopez’s heart pounded as he watched the aircraft continue to accelerate for another thousand feet. Chunks of rubber as large as garbage can lids flew from the tire of the main landing gear of the Omega Airline 737.
0 kommentar(er)
