all the jets fused into one large explosion that barreled over and over and over , like a giant catherine-wheel , through the tightly packed choppers and planes adding more exploded planes and choppers wherever it touched , its fiery tentacles reaching hungrily for more combustibles and fuel , scathing a channel half a mile high by four miles long through the planes and choppers over the city of san francisco , causing a rain of burning fuel and red-hot parts that henty grimly kept her eyes in only one direction .