After all, this was 1986: IBM had just unveiled its first laptop, the Soviet Union was launching the Mir Space Station and Tom Cruise kept daring us to fly ever higher in the hit film "Top Gun".

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Researchers at ETH Zurich are working to change that scenario, as they're currently developing a "self-reconfigurable" device that packs a glue gun for creating the tools it needs on the fly.

ENGADGET: Robot uses glue gun to make tools, hopes to ace Survival Skills 101

He did not know whether the pilot had been injured and declined to speculate on news reports that said the inmates had held a gun to the pilot's head, forcing him to fly.

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"If one of them is scheduled to fly on Sunday, then as early as Sunday we might have a pilot with a gun in a cockpit, " said Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Heather Rosenker.

BBC: US airline pilots get guns

The 19-second clip, titled "200mph Plane fly-by within 2 feet of person, " was uploaded to YouTube, according to The Smoking Gun, which also posted the video.

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