On July 23, 1999, just minutes after All Nippon Airways flight 61 took off from Tokyo and set a course for Sapporo, Japan, a passenger rose from his seat, brandished a large knife, and forced his way into the cockpit. The intruder, an unemployed former mental patient named Yuji Nishizawa, then fatally stabbed the plane's captain and seized control of the Boeing 747, which plunged to within 1,000 feet of the ground before Nishizawa was subdued by the first officer and an off-duty ANA pilot. The aircraft landed safely in Tokyo, and the hijacker later explained that he was an avid flight-simulation fan who commandeered the plane to try his hand at the real thing. "I wanted to soar through the air," said Nishizawa, 28, according to police. He had planned to fly the jumbo jet under Tokyo's Rainbow Bridge.

Nishizawa was clearly a lunatic, and home computer games weren't to blame for his actions. If anything, in fact, Nishizawa had insulted his fellow "simmers" on two separate counts: first by claiming that PC software had prompted him to hijack an airliner, and then by flying the plane so miserably once he had carried out his plan. Nevertheless, it was the first time a hijacker had cited flight-simulation games as an inspiration, and it came at a time when many flight-sim cockpits were looking and operating more and more like their real-life counterparts.

The march toward verisimilitude began in earnest in the late 1990s, when a few competitors to "Microsoft Flight Simulator" began bravely sticking their necks above the clouds to stake out little corners of sky. Sierra Software's "Pro Pilot" debuted in the summer of 1997, offering nice instrument panels but lousy handling and scenery. "Flight Unlimited II," released by Looking Glass later the same year, had great airplanes and beat "Flight Simulator" to the punch with spoken air traffic control.

Then came "Fly!" -- whose exclamatory title was no understatement. Published by Terminal Reality in 1999, the new game tacitly took "Flight Simulator" to task in nearly every regard -- scenery, flight dynamics and, most of all, cockpits. Whereas each "Microsoft Flight Simulator" aircraft offered users only a single, dumbed-down instrument panel that didn't accurately reflect its real-life counterpart in many cases, the five planes included in "Fly!" sported what seemed like living photographs of everything from the dashboard to the center console, the overhead panel, and even the copilot's empty seat. Everything depicted actually worked, too -- and had to be used correctly. "They could practically call this game 'Engine Start-Up Simulator,'" marveled a review by the Web site GameSpot, referring to the item-for-item, true-to-life procedures necessary just to hear the propeller sputter to life or the turbofans begin to spool up.

Realism freaks were thrilled, for example, to have to crane back to a panel behind the pilot's seat and press a button to start the auxiliary power unit on the Hawker 800 XP corporate jet, the queen of the "Fly!" fleet. "What 'Fly!' did was raise the bar," says Dean Bielanowski, editor of PC Aviator magazine. "To date, it is probably still the best simulation available for the home user."

The bar was soon thrust even higher when the tiny Virginia software firm Precision Manuals Development Group released a Boeing 757 add-on for "Fly!" It merged the avionic totality of "Fly!" with the cocoonlike intricacy of a modern Boeing cockpit, and the result was stunning. Simmers pored through the thick instruction manual, learning minutiae such as whether the electrical bus ties should be open or closed prior to the engine start and how all three of the plane's autopilot systems will engage automatically during a precision instrument approach.

Most important, anyone with a PC could now learn to operate a near-perfect facsimile of a real 757 flight-management computer, the small display screen and keypad located beside the throttles on the center console. The FMC is the brain of the flight deck, technologically speaking, and is used by the pilots to input flight plans, calculate takeoff speed, receive automated weather updates, select landing approaches and runways, and perform many other core functions. Pilots program most of the FMC before pushing back from the gate and usually activate the autopilot shortly after takeoff; the FMC then flies the aircraft to the destination city while the pilots baby-sit the instruments and chat about mortgage rates.

In other words, the FMC does almost everything -- and so did the Precision Manuals 757. "I know of no other add-on that goes to such length to model and give the feel of airliner flying," gushed an editorial review at the popular flight-sim Web site Avsim. "It is by far the 'must-have' for any simmer who wants to fly some heavy iron."

Soon the virtual skies were filled with virtual airliners. Precision Manuals followed its 757 with an even more faithful 767 and then a state-of-the-art 777. Phoenix Simulations Software rolled out several airliners for "Microsoft Flight Simulator," including a comprehensive 747. Other companies launched various planes made by Airbus, the European consortium that is now Boeing's chief rival for the civilian jet market. FlightSoft paid homage to the venerable McDonnell-Douglas DC-10. Wilco Publishing added a new dimension with its "767 Pilot in Command" program, which not only simulated normal functions and procedures but also let users practice in-flight emergencies such as an engine fire or autopilot failure.

The Wilco 767 program, developed in part by an American Airlines 767 first officer, earned exceptional kudos, even from pilots. Veteran Northwest Airlines captain William Ball applauded it in a detailed online review, noting that it reproduced both the technology and flight characteristics of the real aircraft to a degree of precision that other virtual 767s had failed to achieve. "I get the sensation that I'm really handling a 400,000-pound piece of aluminum," he said. "Mr. Ernst [the American Airlines pilot] and company did an outstanding job of replicating what the real Boeing is like."

British 767 charter pilot Nigel Warnick (a pseudonym, since his job contract forbids speaking to the press) uses Wilco's 767 on his home computer to stay sharp during his time off. "The systems, computer, and autopilot are totally realistic," he says. "I can practice the various types of approach, before-and-after failure procedures, and just generally keep current on the major recall emergency actions." He says his fellow pilots often belittle such software until he persuades them to sit down and try it -- then many of them go out and buy a copy for their own PC.

Other pilots praise flight sims among themselves but quickly deprecate the same programs when questioned by the media. In a discussion forum at the popular aviation news and gossip Web site Professional Pilots Rumor Network, one 767 captain raved about the Wilco 767. "Absolutely first class -- I wish I'd had access to it when I was converting on the type," he wrote, referring to his own training for the real 767. "Don't knock it till you've tried it," he urged two fellow pilots who had disparaged computer sims in previous posts.

When asked to amplify his remarks for this story, however, the pilot downplayed the software's training potential. The program "does replicate most of the systems quite well but by no means perfectly," he said, asking not to be identified. "I don't think anyone could learn to fly any aircraft using a PC simulator. You would stand a better chance of either ripping the wings off or stalling the aircraft than flying into a building."

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