Bantarn Booky (ire published hv Bantain Books. bic., (I NationalGeneral company. Its trade-inark, consisting of the words "BanianzBooks" and the portra.val of a bant(inz. is registered in Ihc UnitedStates Patent Office and in other countries. Marco Registrada.Buntion Bookv, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue , Neu, York , N.Y. 10019 , PRINFED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings from High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (1922-1941) sometime Flight Lieutenant, Royal Canadian Air ForcePART ONE6:30 P.M.-8:30 P.M. (CST)At half-past six on a Friday evening in January, Lincoln International Airport , Illinois , was functioning, though with difficulty. The airport was reeling-as was the entire Midwestern United States-from the meanest, roughest winter storm in half a dozen years. The storm had lasted three days. Now, like pustules on a battered, weakened body, trouble spots were erupting steadily. A United Air Lines food truck, loaded with two hundred dinners, was lost and presumably snowbound somewhere on the airport perimeter. A search for the truck-in driving snow and darkness-had so far failed to locate either the missing vehicle or its driver. United's Flight I I I-a non-stop DC-8 for Los Angeles , which the food truck was to service-was already several hours behind schedule. The food snafu would make it later stiff. Similar delays, for varying reasons, were affecting at least a hundred flights of twenty other airlines using Lincoln International. Out on the airfield, runway three zero was out of use, blocked by an A6reo-Mexican jet-a Boeing 707-its wheels deeply mired in waterlogged ground beneath snow, near the runway's edge. Two hours of intensive effort had failed to get the big jet moved.
