Critic in Chief: Hostage on the runway
Our chief White House correspondent recaps the ABC series Commander in Chief, assessing how closely the TV drama matches up with real life. Kenneth T. Walsh has covered the White House for U.S. News since 1986.
Another episode, another crisis, another disaster averted.
This time, an apparently deranged man holds Air Force One hostage, threatening to blow up the president's 747 at a California airfield unless the president agrees to provide medical care to his dying wife. The man has somehow been cleared or "vetted" by the Secret Service to operate a truck brimming with 10,000 gallons of jet fuel for refueling. After the commander in chief and her entourage deplane, he parks the vehicle under an Air Force One wing and issues his threats by cellphone.
What a predicament! Should President Mackenzie Allen order Secret Service snipers to kill the fellow, or should she hear him out?
At first, she goes into a snit. Her advisers suggest that she cut short her fundraising trip to the Golden State because of the emergency. She snaps, "I'm not going to let some nut case drive me out of town." Not the most compassionate reaction from the nation's first female commander in chief.
And he isn't just some nut case. He turns out to be a retired Army major, demolitions expert, and veteran of the Persian Gulf War. He was injured, won a medal for bravery in the conflict, and returned home. Only the veterans' health insurance has canceled his wife's coverage—just when she needed treatment for a lethal disease. It seems he got a raw deal.
But President "Mac" can't be seen as "negotiating with a terrorist," as an aide puts it. Just as important, House Speaker Nathan Templeton, who has traveled with her to California as one of the state's representatives, asks the president's husband why she hasn't given the order to shoot the truck driver. Can't the military snipers get a clear shot, Templeton asks, or does the president lack the nerve to give the command?
The question of whether Mac is tough enough to deal with this life-or-death crisis is a recurrent theme on the show. This time, the president has it both ways: She gets a phone call through to the truck driver, tells him she won't bargain with him, and adds that the best thing he can do for his wife is to end the crisis and stay alive. She warns that if he doesn't surrender immediately, she'll have him killed. Then she hangs up and tells her chief Secret Service agent, "Give him five minutes, and then take your first clear shot."
The driver quickly surrenders.
Could this sort of scenario really happen? I doubt it.
Air Force One is guarded constantly and very vigilantly whenever it's on the ground. Even if the truck driver did have access, Secret Service agents surround the plane and supervise everything that happens to it. Viewers surely noticed that the truck driver was acting suspiciously. Didn't the Secret Service?
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