On May 5, 1972, en route to cover a track meet in Quantico, Va., my wife and I spent four harrowing hours aboard a hijacked Eastern Airlines flight from Allentown, Pa., to Washington.

IF you're like us, the final harrowing hour of Thanksgiving preparation can leave you feeling like an air traffic controller at Newark Airport - and starving, besides.

The confrontation - a blast of noise and fury on one side and a wall of stoical rectitude on the other - gave 450 police officers a harrowing hour at midafternoon.

Just two days earlier, a Soviet and an Afghan astronaut spent 25 harrowing hours orbiting in space, after a malfunction in their navigation system interfered with a safe landing.

Buddy had once been lost in a cave for four harrowing hours, and had found his way out by sheer luck, passing the skeleton of an Indian and taking the tomahawk as a souvenir.

Even the richest of them, "Olivier," subjects the viewer to a harrowing final hour without offering enough understanding or emotional impact to justify the ordeal.

Neither Salome nor Lionel Hezekiah ever forgot the harrowing hour that followed.

After six harrowing hours, we made it to the choppers.

After several harrowing hours in space, Jimmy, Hamlet and the rocket are finally brought down to earth.

The FDNY fireboat, Fire Fighter spent seven harrowing hours towing the ship away and then inundating with enough water to sink it.