"Heartstopping" Moments in bin Laden Raid
NBC News has the details for some of the particularly "heartstopping" moments during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound.
"The first was when the operation's helicopters first arrived at the scene. The plan was for the choppers to hover and lower 12 Seals to the ground rather than land. But one of the choppers stopped working due to a lack of air within the high compound walls. It made a soft landing (not a crash) on the ground and the raid went forward."
"The other tense moment came when the choppers were leaving the country but remained within Pakistani airspace. The Pakistanis, seeing the choppers and not knowing if they were friendly or not, scrambled their fighter jets, causing white knuckles before the helicopters were able to leave."
Also worth reading: Mike Allen and Mark Thompson on how the mission went down, Marc Ambinder on the secret team that killed bin Laden and Steve Coll with key observations.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/ ... _raid.html