With the air-traffic controllers' strike causing flight delays and cancellations at airports across the country, TIME correspondents assigned to the story found being in the right place at the right time more crucial than ever. Shortly after the strike was announced, Correspondent Madeleine Nash was at Chicago's O'Hare Airport to assess the situation with passengers and air-traffic supervisors who remained at work. On the day of the strikers' return-to-work deadline, Boston Correspondent John Yang drove to Hollis, N.H., where he witnessed a rally by two local chapters of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Says Yang: "Their singing and cheering erupted into a frenzied roar at the 11 a.m. deadline."

While Washington Correspondent Gary Lee interviewed PATCO Leader Robert Poli, White House Correspondent Laurence Barrett monitored Government strategy on the strike by interviewing Administration officials, including Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis. Says Barrett: "We had known that the Administration would take a hard line. But it was only when we watched Reagan making his statement in the Rose Garden that we understood how hard a line it would be." In Los Angeles, Bureau Chief Benjamin Cate charted industry reaction as he ate an economy-class lunch at the desk of Continental Air lines President George A. Warde. Meanwhile, Photographer Jim Collison got his film from Los Angeles to New York City, while it was still fresh, by packing it on a plane full of flowers and tomatoes headed for Manhattan.

The exclusive photographs that accompany this week's report on the state dinner for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat were equally ingenious. To get a candid picture of President Reagan's toast without creating a distraction, Photographer Dennis Brack placed two cameras inside soundproofed planter boxes that had holes in the sides and then tripped them by infrared beams from across the room. In Brack's case, being in the "wrong" place at the right time was the perfect solution.

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