Sentence:  To Rickards , a 52 - year-old veteran 30 years in the air , it <WSD>was</WSD> an old story : His plane was being hijacked in mid-flight again much as it had happened in 1930 , when Peruvian rebels made him land a Ford tri-motor at Arequipa . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  be identical to; be someone or something