Osama bin Laden Is Dead

"We got him": The president and his security team watch the Abbottabad raid in the White House, May 2, 2011Photograph by Pete Souza/White House

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By Paul M. Barrett

October 12, 2012 at 5:21 AM UTC

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This article is part of the October 15, 2012 issue of businessweek.

The four specially outfitted helicopters rose into midnight darkness from a U.S. military base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Carrying 79 commandos, the aircraft swooped east at low altitudes toward the Pakistani border and on to Abbottabad. It was May 2, 2011, Osama bin Laden’s last day.

At 1 a.m. local time, the first Black Hawk to reach the bin Laden compound encountered a vortex caused by unexpectedly warm air and the enclosure’s high walls. The attack copter descended more rapidly than anticipated; its tail hit a wall and snapped off. The U.S. Army Special Forces pilot kept the hard landing under control, preventing casualties.