MS Flight Sim Reworked After Attacks

Microsoft Corp. will alter its Flight Simulator airplane simulator game to eliminate the World Trade Center, Microsoft officials confirmed late Friday.

A spokesman for Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., said the World Trade Center would be removed from the game's next release, due out this fall. The introduction will also be changed to eliminate a scene where two people discuss crashing a plane into the Empire State Building.

"Actually, it took just a day to decide that," said Matt Pilla, a spokesman for the company. "We just want to do the right thing."

The game introduction reportedly shows a noted flight instructor and his wife using the software, who says, "John, you just about crashed into the Empire State Building! Hey, that would be cool."

That portion will be struck from the game, Microsoft officials said. Separately, the World Trade Center towers will be entirely removed from the game, to prevent reenactments of the two separate crashes of hijacked airliners on Tuesday. The Pentagon, however, will remain, Pilla said.

Some early reports stated that the hijackers may have been trained on the simulator. By Friday, those reports had largely been contradicted, as officials reportedly said they believed the hijackers had attended U.S. flight schools and obtained pilot licenses.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in The Net Economy.