No Room for Error

S2, E8: It's where a pilot can ill afford to make a mistake...but where dogfights are so often drawn. Down to the deck, at treetop level, where the margin for error is zero. Witness first hand the grim and grisly reality of low-level dogfighting. In July 1944, P-51Ds tasked with performing a long-range bomber escort, are jumped by the German arsenal. A wild, swirling dogfight tumbles its way toward the earth. In May 1952, Capt. James Kasler leads a two-ship element in a flight of four F-86E Sabre jets. Kasler spots three silver MiG-15s heading the opposite direction at an altitude of about 1,000 feet. He dives in behind the lead MiG, shredding it with his 50 caliber machine guns. And in May 1967, two flights of four F-4Cs over North Vietnam get involved in an intense dogfight with 16 MiG-17s.