As I walked up to the stairs to the upper deck, I saw one of our agents posted outside the cockpit. Never in history had an agent guarded the cockpit before that flight. When I reached the door to the cockpit, the agent let me in and locked the door behind me. Colonel Tillman glanced back and asked, "What can I do for you Kevin?"
"The president wants me to find out our itinerary," I replied.
"As of now we are just going to fly around until we get more news; we are headed toward Tennessee for now--," Colonel Tillman was interrupted mid sentence by Air Traffic Control with news no one wanted to hear.
"Air Force One Air Force One come in, this is ATC"
"This is Air Force One go ahead ATC," Colonel Tillman quickly replied.
"We have an unidentified jet heading toward you, we are trying to raise them on the radio but they aren't answering."
"Roger that ATC, we're turning around, notify us with any updates," Colonel Tillman replied.
"Will do sir, ATC out."
"Kevin, tell the president that we're heading for the Gulf where the fighters can protect us, we'll wait there until the skies are clear," stated the Colonel.
"Yes sir," I replied as I turned around and ran down the stairs to the president’s office. I ran into the president’s office and the president looked up at me and asked, “Kevin what’s wrong, you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
“Sir, we’re being followed by an unidentified commercial airliner,” I replied.
“Has it been hijacked?” he asked.
“We don’t know sir, they’re not responding to ATC, they’re going to try to reach the airliner on an emergency frequency,” I replied.
“Go back up to the cockpit and keep me posted Kevin,” the president ordered.
This is a very authentic piece. Your research shines through in the details. I would not be surprised if this scene is very close to the truth!
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