Flight Delay

When the President sends his Secretary of State abroad on as urgent a mission as heading off a war, a suitable plane would presumably be available. Not so. Of the five Air Force jets normally kept at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington for long-range VIP missions, two were ferrying Ronald Reagan’s party around the Caribbean; one was hauling junketing Congressmen to the Middle East and Africa; one was slated to take other Congressmen and their wives to the Caribbean area, and the fifth was down for repairs. So Haig was assigned to a back-up C-135B, a converted tanker plane with no windows.

Haig was ready to board this flying cigar tube when the Congressmen’s 707 developed engine trouble and they switched to a smaller DC 9. Haig then decided to wait 14 hours for an engine change on the 707, which he finally boarded at 3 a.m. Said an aide: “After all, the British fleet was not going to get to the Falklands by morning.”