1) She mentioned that the attendant knew she was making a faux pas by telling her their were air marshals on board.
2) You can easily see out the other side window, across the aisle, but also, I don't think she necessarily meant just the 7 or eight blocks of skyscrapers.
Perhaps fiction writers cannot help but embellish but it tend to deminsih the credibilty of her story.
BTW-I am in the air at least eight times in a month going from Austin to New York, Chicago, LA and have seen strange activity on several flights. I do not doubt the meat of her story.