Terrorist Hijacking of Pacifica 762 SQUAWK 7500 1242 Central Standard Time

Great Falls International Airport is located on the high plains of Montana; west of the confluence of the Sun and Missouri rivers and surrounded by the Highwood, Little Belt, Big Belt and Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.

Although the distant vistas are breathtaking, the airport itself is surrounded only by parched soil and scrub juniper trees. Without the trees, it is reminiscent of an airdrome sitting on the surface of the moon.

However, the scene that filled the pilot's windscreen was not of a distant lunar landing field; rather, that of an airport hanging from the middle of the most brightly decorated Christmas tree you could possibly imagine. The pulsing and revolving emergency lights of no fewer than sixty police cruisers, fire engines, and ambulances bathed every square foot of the airport. The vehicles were on the taxiways, the inactive runways, and the ramp areas next to the terminal. Like strobe-fitted ants, a caravan of more emergency vehicles could be seen moving along the airport's perimeter roads. The blinking effect from the thousands of rainbow colored lights instantly added to the headache that Mike had developed shortly after Karen's call to the cockpit. The reflection of the lights on the wet pavement, remaining from the showers the flight had just flown through, increased the surreal visual effect of the "Christmas tree" where the pilots were preparing to land.

"Pacifica Seven Sixty-Two, you are cleared for a visual approach to runway 21."

"Roger, cleared for the visual approach to runway 21," Mike acknowledged.

Gary called for the landing gear to be extended and the reading of the "Before Landing" checklist. Mike lowered the landing gear handle, removed the laminated checklist from the holder on the glare shield, and started calling out the "before landing" items. It was a "command and response" checklist; each item that Mike called out, Gary would confirm the particular flight control, or switch, corresponding with that item was in the proper position. The checklist was proceeding smoothly until they reached the "landing gear" section - that's when the panic set in.
"Pacifica Seven Sixty-Two, you are cleared to land, emergency equipment and personnel standing-by."

Mike was too busy handling a major cockpit malfunction to verbally acknowledge the controller's clearance. Both pilots were alarmed to discover that the landing gear had not come down when the landing gear lever had been lowered. Pacifica Seven Sixty-Two was ninety seconds from touching down with a malfunctioning landing gear and possibly cartwheeling into the ambulances, fire trucks, and police cruisers lining the runway.

Mike shouted at Gary, "keep flying - I'll take care of the gear!"

Moving faster than he had ever moved in the simulator, where he semi-annually practiced emergency drills, Mike quickly opened the landing gear access door at the base of the center console and pulled all three manual gear-release levers. The aircraft flight manual states that it takes fifteen seconds for the gear to free fall into position. Mike wasn't sure if that was believable or not. All he knew for sure is they were fifty feet in the air and twenty seconds from either landing or crashing.
Twenty feet. Ten feet. Five feet ... touchdown!

Mike and Gary brace for the impact that was sure to follow - but it didn't happen. The landing gear held; safely down and locked. A joyous feeling immediately came over both pilots but it was short-lived. More trouble loomed ahead.

Gary was having trouble keeping the aircraft tracking down the center of the runway. Like a disco ball from a 1970's era nightclub, the thousands of rotating lights from the emergency vehicles filled the cockpit and practically blinded him. The situation wasn't any better for Mike but it was his responsibility, as the captain, to assume control of the steering once the aircraft was safely on the ground.

Mike swiped Gary's hands off the throttles and said, "I've got it!"

Mike squinted and did his best to battle the blinding lights as he raised the thrust reverse levers and slammed them full aft. The pilots were immediately thrown forward, against their seat belts and shoulder harnesses, as the Boeing jet reacted to a one hundred eighty degree reversal of its thrust vector.

As the airliner rapidly decelerated, and the extreme airframe vibrations, caused by the reverse thrust, began to subside, both pilots were instantly shocked to hear a simple tone reverberate throughout the cockpit - Ding. Ding.

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