Answer:
c. Sitting in the cockpit of a commercial airplane.
Explanation:
The National Geographic magazine article "Barrington Irving, Pilot and Educator" narrates how Barrington Irving became a pilot. Irving would become the first and youngest African American to be a pilot and fly solo around the world.
Irving had never thought of becoming a pilot at first. As he admitted, "I didn’t think I was smart enough", Irving never thought about his future in the aviation scene. He was just helping out his parents at their bookstore. It was there that a chance encounter, a chance question by "a Jamaican-born professional pilot" and the chance to sit at the cockpit of a commercial airplane that "hooked" Irving to flying.
Thus, the correct answer is option c.