The roar of the black A380 still echoed across Los Angeles long after it had vanished into the afternoon sky.
At LAX, silence lingered for a moment inside the terminals, then chaos erupted.
Passengers crowded every available window, their phones pressed to glass, voices rising in a storm of disbelief. Some sprinted from gate to gate just to keep the jet in sight as it banked westward, its wings flashing platinum in the sun.
In the control tower, controllers leaned out of their panoramic windows, still gaping.
One muttered into his headset, "That's not real. I mean—it can't be real."
Another shook his head, eyes fixed on the receding titan. "It just took off. That was no drone, no model. That was an actual A380."
