“They still can, any time they want,” she said.

“They still can,” I agreed.

The networks began referring to this as a cyber-hijacking, which immediately was shortened to cyjacking. It appeared the entire country was being awakened by people calling friends and family to turn on their TV. The White House told reporters that the president was at his cabin and that he and the first lady were monitoring the event and joined all Americans in praying for a safe outcome.

The networks had all made the same decision not to run any commercials. That decision was pretty easy to make, seeing as how not too many companies want to be associated with an out-of-control aircraft flying at 36,000 feet. With few new facts to report, they began focusing on the pilots, Sanchez and Stein, providing as much background as possible. MSNBC got the president of the Air Line Pilots Association to say, “If you’re going to be caught in this situation, Steve Sanchez is the guy you want in the cockpit.” Sanchez had been flying for three decades and had flown every type of aircraft from carrier-based fighters to jumbo jets.

According to reports, the plane was flying in great circles, as if it had no particular destination, slowly descending. The flight crew was in direct communication with Boeing engineers, who were reviewing all procedures to try to figure out how to regain control of the computer system. A Boeing spokesperson said chief engineer Pete Schaeffer was working with Sanchez and Stein to decide on a strategy and that Boeing remained “supremely confident” in its products and its people.

I suddenly realized Jenny and I had been transfixed for almost forty-five minutes; neither of us had moved. “You okay?” I asked her.

She shook her head as she took a deep, calming breath. She couldn’t speak.

This must be driving the intel people nuts, I thought. I had absolutely no doubt they were desperately trying to get their hooks into whoever was doing this, sort of a cyber version of catching robbers in the bank. But I also figured they had no chance of identifying the hackers. Anyone skillful enough to carry this out certainly had the ability to obscure their tracks behind them.

On ABC, David Muir was reporting that Sanchez and Schaeffer were trying various techniques to work around the plane’s electronics system, but thus far nothing had worked. “There is no manual for this,” he said. “This is literally seat-of-the-pants flying. They are making it up on the spot.” He paused dramatically. “And it appears they are running out of time.”

He started his next thought but stopped suddenly and raised a just-a-minute finger. He looked down at his desk, cleared his throat to maintain his composure, and said, “We’re just getting word that they’ve made a decision. It appears that they are going to attempt to reboot the computer system.” The ABC expert was a former naval aviator and NASA astronaut, Steve Peters. “Steve, what exactly does that mean?”