Corrections and clarifications. Due to an unfortunate coincidence, today's SUNDAY magazine features a cover story about flight attendants, including a photograph of a United Airlines DC-10 jetliner and the caption "Come Fly with Me." The story was prepared and the magazine printed weeks before the crash of the United DC-10 Wednesday in Sioux City, Ia. The newspaper regrets any appearance of insensitivity.

The ability to fly on the cheap offers another luxury. Flight attendants can live just about anywhere they want and commute to work at their assigned bases. Kathy Ambo of Eastern is based in Miami but lives in Chicago. American's Rodney Rose is based in Chicago but lives in Syracuse, N.Y. Ruth Parsons works with Rose out of Chicago though she lives in St. Catharines, Ont. Roughly 20 percent of United's 13,000 flight attendants commute to work from other cities.

Karen McDivitt is aboard a jumbo jet on a flight that has just reached cruising altitude after departing Chicago. The captain tells the passengers that the seat-belt light has been turned off and that he expects a smooth journey. Suddenly, there's an alarming bang. Then the plane pitches ominously, left and then right, side to side. Tension in the cabin begins to build. There's a mechanical problem, the captain announces, and he's taking the plane back to O'Hare, where he will make an emergency landing. Karen's heart is pumping hard. The jet turns around and limps toward O'Hare as the frightful noises and involuntary banking continue. The 130,000-ton plane slowly descends and finally sets down, scraping along the runway as Karen shouts, "Stay down, stay down!" to the braced passengers. The giant machine finally screeches to a halt as smoke begins to fill the cabin. Karen runs to a nearby door and shouts, "Come this way! Come this way!" and then, "Jump! Jump!" as passengers rush up to the now-deployed emergency chute.