Page 4 (1/2)
Kay Liang nodded "It is a lever in the center pillar, between the chairs"
That was correct, Casey thought
"Did you notice the lever at that time? While you were in the cockpit?"
"Yes It was in the up and locked position"
Again, Casey noted the terht attendant?
"Did he say anything else?"
"He was concerned about the autopilot He said the autopilot kept trying to cut in, to take over the plane He said &039;I had to fight the autopilot for control&039;"
"I see And as Captain Chang&039;s manner at this tiood captain"
The girl&039;s eyes flickered nervously She twisted her hands in her lap Casey decided to wait for a ator&039;s trick: let the subject break the silence
"Captain Chang co said, sing "His father was a pilot during the war, and his son is a pilot as well"
"I see "
The flight attendant lapsed into silence again There was a pause She looked down at her hands, then back up "So Is there anything else I can tell you?"
Outside the cubicle, Rich you said couldn&039;t happen? Uncommanded slats deployment?"
"I didn&039;t say it couldn&039;t happen I said I didn&039;t believe it was possible on this aircraft And if it did, it raises more questions than it answers"
"And what about the autopilot - "
&039;Too early to tell," she said, and went into the next cubicle
"It must have been around six o&039;clock," E her head She was a slender woman of thirty, with a purple bruise on her cheek An infant slept on her lap Her husband lay in the bed behind her; a metal brace ran from his shoulders to his chin She said his jaas broken
"I had just fed the baby I was talking to my husband And then I heard a sound"
"What sort of a sound?"
"A ru"
Not good, Casey thought
"So I looked out theAt the wing"
"Did you see anything unusual?"
"No It all looked norine, but the engine looked nor?"
"On ht on the wing?"
"Yes"
"Reflecting back at you?"
Emily Jansen shook her head "I don&039;t really ren on?&039;
"No Never"
"Did the captainback to this sound - you described it as a ru like that I don&039;t know if I heard it, or felt it It was al did this vibration last?"
"Several seconds"
"Five seconds?"
"Longer I would say ten or twelve seconds"
A classic description of a slats deployht
"Okay," she said "And then?"
"The plane started going down" Jansen gestured with the flat of her hand "Like that"
Casey continued toto put together the sequence of events, trying to decide how the engineers should proceed There was no question that both witnesses were telling a story consistent with slats deploy for twelve seconds - exactly the tiht nose up, which would occur next And then porpoising, as the crew tried to stabilize the aircraft
What a , "Since the cockpit door was open, I could hear all the alarlish that sounded recorded"
"Do you remember what they said?"
"It sounded like &039;Fall fall&039; Soht And the audio re, "Stall, stall"
Damn
She stayed with Emily Jansen a few minutes more and then went back outside
In the corridor, Rich sound ht," she said She was tense, edgy She wanted to get back to the aircraft, and talk to the engineers
From one of the curtained cubicles farther down the corridor, she saw a stocky gray-haired figure ee She was surprised to see it was Mike Lee She felt a burst of irritation: What the hell was the carrier rep doing talking to passengers? It was very inappropriate Lee had no business being here
She re had said: A Chinesehis head
"Mike," she said "I&039;ive ers were considering lawsuits I talked them out of it"
"But Mike," she said "You talked to crew ht"
"What do you think, I fed theave me the story And there&039;s not much doubt about what happened" Lee stared at her "I&039;ht 545 had an uncoot proble back to the van, Richot proble back now She said, "We&039;ve had some incidents of slats deployment on the N-22"
"Wait a minute," Richman said "You mean this has happened before?"
"Not like this," she said "We&039;ve never had serious injuries But yes, we&039;ve had problems with slats"
EN ROUTE
1:05 PM
"The first episode occurred four years ago, on a flight to San Juan," Casey said, as they drove back "Slats extended in ht it was an anomaly, but then there were two additional incidents within a couple of ated, we found that in every case the slats had deployed during a period of flight deck activity: right after a crew change, or when they punched in coordinates for the next leg of the flight, or soetting knocked loose by the crews, banged by clipboards, caught on unifor," Rich slot for the lever, like &039;park&039; on an automobile trans accidentally dislodged"
Rich at her with the skeptical expression of a prosecuting attorney "So the N-22 does have problems"
"It was a new aircraft," she said, "and all aircraft have problems when they&039;re first introduced You can&039;t build a s We do everything we can to avoid then Then we build, then we flight test But there are always going to be problems The question is how to resolve them"
"How do you resolve them?"
"Whenever we discover a problem, we send the operators a heads-up, called a Service Bulletin, which describes our recommended fix But we don&039;t have the authority to mandate compliance Some carriers iets into the act and issues an Airworthiness Directive to the carriers, requiring them to fix the planes in service within a specified time But there are always ADs, for every model aircraft We&039;re proud of the fact that Norton has fewer than anyone else"
"So you say"
"Go look it up They&039;re all on file at Oak City"
"At what?"
"Every AD that&039;s ever been issued is on file at the FAA&039;s Technical Center in Oklahoma City"
"So you had one of these ADs on the N-22? Is that what you&039;re tellingthe carriers install a hinged metal cover that sits over the lever That meant the captain had to flip up the cover before he could deploy the slats, but it solved the problem As usual, some carriers made the fix, others didn&039;t So the FAA issued an AD o There&039;s been only one incident since then, but that involved an Indonesian carrier who didn&039;t install the cover In this country, the FAA requires carriers to coed "The carriers do what they want"
"That&039;s it? That&039;s the whole history?"
"That&039;s the whole history The IRT investigated, the metal covers were installed on the fleet, and there haven&039;t been any more slats problems on the N-22"
"Until now," Richht Until now"
LAX MAINTENANCE HANGAR
1:22 PM
"A what?" Kenny Burne said, shouting from the cockpit of Transpacific 545 "They said it hat!"
"Uncommanded slats deployment," Rich out of the seat "What a crock of shit Hey! Clarence, come in here See that seat? That&039;s the first officer&039;s seat Sit down there"
Richet in the damn seat"
Aardly, Richot into the first officer&039;s chair on the right
"Okay," Burne said "You comfy in there, Clarence? You&039;re not a pilot, by any chance?"
"No," Richood So, here you are, all set to fly the plane Now, you see straight ahead" - he pointed to the control panel directly in front of Richman, which consisted of three video screens, each four inches square - "you got your three color CRTs showing your priation display, and on the left, systems display All those little se everything&039;s fine Now, on the roof above your head, that&039;s your overhead instru is fine It&039;s dark unless there&039;s a problem Now, to your left is e call the pedestal"
Burne pointed to a boxy structure that protruded between the two seats There were a half-dozen levers in slots on the pedestal "Now, froines, spoilers, brakes, thrusters Slats and flaps are controlled by that lever nearest you, the one with the little metal cover over it See it?"
"I see it," Riche the slats"
"Engage the "
"Pull the slats lever down," Burne said
Richled for a moment to move the lever
"No, no Grab it firht, then down," Burne said "Just like a gearshift on a car"
Richers around the handle He pulled the lever up, across, and down There was a distant hum
"Good," Burne said "Now, look at your display See that a you the slats are coe Okay? Takes twelve seconds to fully extend Now they&039;re out, and the indicator is white and says SLATS"
"I see," Richman said