The verbal tense in the passage “had been eating” is

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Q730042 Inglês
“Mr. Preaud and his wife, who is pregnant, hit the ground as people screamed, “Get down, get down!” After the second explosion, he looked up to see a giant fan — part of an air-conditioning unit — that had landed near them. They had been eating at a Délifrance, talking about Salah Abdeslam, the terrorism suspect who was arrested in Brussels on Friday after a four-month global manhunt.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/world/europe /brussels (adapted). Access: March 23rd, 2016.  
The verbal tense in the passage “had been eating” is
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