Maybe an urban legend, maybe real...

A collegue of my father used to fly regularly into less than politically stable countries for his job in the oil business. He claims that several times for planes taking off after dark, the crew *insisted* all window shade were down for takeoff and the bit immediately after.

When he enquired why he was told that the lights gave something for the local snipers to aim at and that the take off run was done without any lights.

If this is true then it's quite scary. If it was an exageration then it's a quite good one!

Jason