9781422285046

plane. Without a working hydraulics system, Camp- bell had no steering, no brakes, no ability to land . . . not unless she could fly the plane manually. It was her only option, so she switched over to that backup method. Now she had another choice to make. One option was to try to fly the plane, or what was left of it. She had some 300 miles (482 km) to cover before she would reach Kuwait and friendly airspace. Her other option was to eject over Baghdad. She would shoot herself out of the plane, leaving it to crash. That would ruin the plane and possibly injure innocent people on the ground. In addition, Campbell would be ejecting into enemy territory. She’d just been shooting at them, and they’d just been shooting at her. So, back to Option One. Later, in the final “Mission Accom- plished” chapter, see how Captain Camp- bell found the solution to her prob- lem. First, read more about the steps pilots take to reach their goals in the sky.

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