Airlines: Play Hard, Fly Right

Speed-loving CEO Gordon Bethune tells how he's piloting Continental Airlines through stormy skies

The Boeing 767 jumbo jet is fresh off the shop floor, a sleek $138 million model made to order for Continental Airlines. But its pilot on this test drive is a little rusty and nervously wipes a hand on his khakis as he glides in to land on runway 14L at the Moses Lake test facility southeast of Seattle. With the plane just 200 ft. off the ground, a crosswind hits, and the co-pilot warns, in that dead-calm tone they all seem to learn, "You're on the left side of the runway." The pilot slides the plane back to the right...

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