Although separated by several hundred miles as it snakes its way through seven different states between Maryland and Colorado, highway-50 would also play a role in the attackers escape from the Air Force Academy. At the junction of state highway-67, roughly five miles east of Canon City Colorado, the Fremont County Airport lay adjacent to that same nation crossing highway-50. What had been envisioned back in May by Samuel and his trusted group of attack planners was bold to be sure, but now it was moments away from either a beautiful realization or complete failure.

Seated with a view of the airport from her northward facing position on a hillside road, the driver of the third black suburban could look through her binoculars to the west and plainly see a handful of single engine propeller driven aircraft and two Cessna Citation Latitude jets near the main building. While her driving sisters of the other two suburban’s had by now gained entry into Kansas and New Mexico for their respective mission assignments, she had been tasked with witnessing and reporting the upcoming transfer. Glancing at her burn phone, she realized that the time was near. Rolling down the window for added amplification, she then listened carefully while waiting for the helicopter to arrive.

As anticipated, her wait was a short one. She first heard the reverberating echo of distant rotor blades coming from the canyon to the north, and then after grabbing the binoculars once again, verified that the two jets were beginning to taxi. Estimating that the first would need another minute to reach the end of the taxiway for a turn onto the runway, she began an intense search of the terrain for the incoming helicopter. The noise level of the pending arrival was beginning to magnify, so even though she couldn’t see it yet, the MIL MI-8 HIP-C had to be getting close. Having sped south over a sparsely populated mountain region just to the west of Pikes Peak, the camouflaged helicopter closed on the intended target east of Canon City. Just like the flight from the Centennial Airport earlier that morning, the bird had hugged the terrain as best as possible for added cover and the intent worked to perfection. The flight crew had achieved the upper hand in eluding any pursuers by moving away from the Air Force Academy within minutes after the attack, and their flight tactics had maintained an advantage that was hoped would last.

What Mr. Capra and Mr. Fisk were unaware of as they were finally spotted by the woman in the suburban, was that they had more leeway than either of them thought. The two academy helicopters that also deployed fourteen parachutes over Falcon Stadium were unarmed and ill equipped for a chase, as they had planned on a short duration flight and simply didn’t have enough fuel. Unfortunately for those crews, by the time they could refuel and take flight, a chase would prove useless. The aircraft that had been called into a pursuit of the attacking force had lifted off from the nearby Schriever Air Force Base to the east of Colorado Springs, but the order to do so had taken several crucial minutes to be received and executed. That precious amount of time proved to be consequential, as while flying low and hugging the mountainous terrain, the camouflaged helicopter used for the escape could not be spotted from high above.