But their controllers sit 400 miles north, outside the faded Erie Canal town of Rome, New York, amid a forest of glowing monitors at the headquarters of the Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS). The jet and an unseen wingman have scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base, just east of Washington, D.C. The voice in the earphones sounds less helpful this time: “This is a United States Air Force armed F-16. It executes the “head butt,” soaring up vertically within 500 feet of the intruder’s nose. A minute or two later, the fighter is back, aiming for a more dramatic impression. You are in violation of restricted airspace. A voice crackles in the pilot’s headset: “This is a United States Air Force armed F-16. Suddenly-whoosh! A trademark shape most of us encounter only in the movies or at airshows darts underneath the 100-knot pleasure craft, then carves a semi-circle in the sky in front of it. The eight-seat recreational airplane, a single-engine Gippsland Airvan, is cruising peacefully over southern Maryland on a hazy June afternoon, pilot and passengers enjoying the view from 4,000 feet, where the Nanticoke River runs into the swamplands at the edge of the Chesapeake Bay.
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