The call came in two days ago: an aircraft with 40 passengers aboard had gone down in a remote area somewhere along the Alaskan-Canadian border. The Federal Aviation Administration, which had been monitoring the flight, received the distress call before losing contact with the aircraft. Just as if it had been a real-life situation, the FAA contacted the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center at Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson. The notional scenario set the stage for more than 100 U.S.