FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ As their JetBlue flight zoomed toward Fort Lauderdale, the first stop on a cross-country quest for the perfect college-break party town, Missouri State student Jordan Upchurch and his best friend, Brittney Gross, faced what seemed a crucial series of decisions: Which Cuban restaurant to hit first. The best beach. The hottest dance club.
But their reverie was interrupted by a flurry of activity a few rows in front of them, where one flight attendant had just summoned another to look at the small TV screen embedded in the back of a seat, tuned to MSNBC. "Hey, look at this," the first attendant said. "Oh my gosh!"
Upchurch and Gross, more curious than alarmed, switched their own TV screen to the same channel and saw panning aerial shots of an airport emblazoned with a "breaking news" chyron. Putting on their headphones, they heard a reporter buzzing excitedly about gunfire and dead bodies _ not at an airport, but their airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International.
Up and down the aisle, other TV screens began clicking over to the news. A fizz of chatter rippled through the cabin, but Upchurch and Gross sat there quietly, transfixed by the surreality of it all: They were flying into a slaughterhouse, and watching themselves do it on television.
