Note: This idea was provided by reader
@Unknown!
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American Airlines Flight 444
November 15, 1979
Arthur Plotnik gazed out the window to his right. The canopy of fluffy clouds hung below, mimicking the treetops of a lush rainforest, and the tranquil endless blue sky sped by. Plotnik smiled and returned to his work, an editorial on some four-star restaurant in Chicago. The forty-two-year-old's career in the journalism industry didn't pay very well, but it was his passion, and enough to keep him and his two preteen daughters happy. The fat alimony check he got in the mail from his ex-wife didn't hurt, either.
It was just smooth sailing from here on out.
BOOM.
Chaos.
The back of the plane was missing. The explosion from what Plotnik could only assume had been an engine exploding or--God forbid--a bomb had disintegrated half of the vehicle and sent the whole thing into a tailspin of epic proportions.
He clung to his seat for dear life. Bags, suitcases, books, and even people were thrown out the gaping maw, sucked out by the rushing winds and thrown into the endless blue skies. Oxygen masks descended heroically from the ceiling, as if to say,
Don't worry! Just put us on and you'll be fine!
The masks were swiftly torn from their cords by the raging air.
A hardcover novel spun from the front of the plane and slammed into Plotnik's fingers, causing him to yelp in pain and let go. In an instant, he was gone, clawed away from his last piece of solid ground.
He tumbled down, down, down, the earth and sky spinning with him in a mess of blue, green, and brown. He screamed. And the world went dark.
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"
I... I just don't know what to say. I'm speechless. Ladies and gentlemen, earlier today United Airlines Flight 444, on its way from Chicago to Washington, D.C., went down in flames over West Virginia. There was, according to early reports, an onboard explosion that snapped the plane in two. The explosion and crash together killed all seventy-eight passengers and crew aboard, with no survivors."
--John Chancellor, from the November 15, 1979 edition of the
NBC Nightly News
"
We call this guy the Unabomber, because he's sent bombs to both the University of Illinois and now an airline. He's taken credit for both but managed to stay anonymous. But now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is on the job, he won't keep hidden for long. We're going to get this son of a bitch."
--President Jimmy Carter to Head of Central Intelligence William H. Webster, overheard outside the Oval Office on November 15, 1979