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"Okay Now retract the slats"

Rich it left and down to locked position, then closing the cover over the handle

"That," Bume said, "is a commanded slats extension"

"Okay," Richman said

"Now, let&039;s perform an uncommanded slats extension"

"How do I do that?"

"Any way you can, pal For starters, hit it with the side of &039;your hand"

Rich the lever with his left hand But the cover protected it Nothing happened

"Co his hand laterally back and forth, banging against thehappened The cover protected the handle; the slats lever remained up and locked

"Maybe you could knock it with your elbow," Burne said "Or tell you what, try this clipboard here," he said, pulling a clipboard froive it a good whack I&039; for an accident here"

Richainst the metal He turned the clipboard and pushed the lever with one edge Nothing happened

"You want to keep trying?" Burne said "Or are you starting to get the point? It can&039;t be done, Clarence Not with that cover in place"

"Maybe the cover wasn&039;t in place," Rich Maybe you can knock the cover up, by accident Try that with your clipboard, Clarence"

Riche of the cover But the surface was smoothly curved, and the clipboard just slid off The cover remained closed

"No way to do it," Burne said "Not by accident So What&039;s the next thought?"

"Maybe the cover was already up"

"Good idea," Burne said "They&039;re not supposed to be flying with the cover up, but who the hell knohat they did Go ahead and lift die cover up"

Riche The handle was now exposed

"Okay, Clarence Go to it"

Rich it hard, but with most lateral movements, the raised cover still acted as a protection The clipboard hit die cover before it struck the handle Several tiain Richain before he could proceed

"Maybe if you used your hand," Burne suggested

Rich at the handle with his palm In a few moments, the side of his hand was red, and the lever re back in the seat "I get the point"

"It can&039;t be done," Bume said "It simply can&039;t be done An uncommanded slats deploy is impossible on this aircraft Period"

Frouys finished screwing around? Because I want to pull the recorders and go home"

As they came out of the cockpit, Burne touched Casey on the shoulder and said, "See you a minute?"

"Sure," she said

He led her back in the plane, out of earshot of the others He leaned close to her and said, "What do you know about that kid?"

Casey shrugged "He&039;s a Norton relative"

"What else?"

"Marder assigned him to me"

"You check him out?"

"No," Casey said "If Marder sent him, I assume he&039;s fine"

"Well, I talked to ," Burne said "They say he&039;s a weasel They say, don&039;t turn your back on hi&039;s wrong with that kid, Casey Check him out"

With a metallic whir from the power screwdrivers, the floor panels ca a maze of cables and boxes under the cockpit

"Jesus," Rich the operation, running his hand over his bald head nervously "That&039;s fine," he said "Now get the panel to the left"

"How ot on this bird, Ron?" Doherty said

"A hundred and fifty-two," Smith said Anybody else, Casey kneould have to thuh a thick sheaf of schematics before he answered But Smith knew the electrical syste?" Doherty said

"Pull the CVR, the DFDR, and the QAR if they got one," Smith said

"You don&039;t know if there&039;s a QAR?" Doherty said, teasing him

"Optional," Smith said "It&039;s a customer install I don&039;t think they put one in Usually on the N-22 it&039;s in the tail, but I looked, and didn&039;t find one"

Richht they were getting the black boxes"

"We are," Smith said

"There&039;s a hundred and fifty-two black boxes?"

"Oh hell," Smith said, "they&039;re all over the aircraft But we&039;re only after the main ones now - the ten or twelve NVMs that count"

"NVMs," Richot it," S over the panels

It was left to Casey to explain The public perception of an aircraft was that it was a big mechanical device, with pulleys and levers that moved control surfaces up and down In theevents in the flight These were the black boxes that were always talked about on news programs The CVR, the cockpit voice recorder, was essentially a very sturdy tape deck; it recorded the last half hour of cockpit conversation on a continuous loop of ht data recorder, which stored details of the behavior of the airplane, so that investigators could discover what had happened after an accident

But this ie of an aircraft, Casey explained, was inaccurate for a large commercial transport Commercial jets had very few pulleys and levers - indeed, fewwas hydraulic and electrical The pilot in the cockpit didn&039;t move the ailerons or flaps by force ofon an automobile: when the pilot moved the control stick and pedals, he sent electrical impulses to actuate hydraulic systems, which in turn moved the control surfaces

The truth was that a commercial airliner was controlled by a network of extraordinarily sophisticated electronics - dozens of co There were coation, for coines, the control surfaces, the cabin environment

Each major computer systeation syste; the DME for distance ; the ATC for air traffic control; the TCAS for collision avoidance; the GPWS for ground proxi

In this complex electronic environht data recorder Since all the coh the DFDR and stored on ht para is this thing?" Rich Ron was pulling an orange-and-black striped box froe shoe box He set it on the floor, and replaced it with a new box, for the ferry flight back to Burbank

Richman bent over, and lifted the DFDR by one stainless-steel handle "Heavy"

That&039;s the crash-resistant housing," Ron said "The actual doohickey weighs maybe six ounces"

"And the other boxes? What about them?"

The other boxes existed, Casey said, to facilitate maintenance Because the electronic systems of the aircraft were so complicated, it was necessary to monitor&039; the behavior of each systeht Each system tracked its own performance, in as called Non Volatile Meht NVM systeeht plan and the pilot-entered waypoints; the Digital Engine Controller, which ital Air Data Computer, which recorded airspeed, altitude, and overspeed warnings

"Okay," Richet the point"

"None of this would be necessary," Ron Smith said, "if we had the QAR"

"QAR?"

"It&039;s another maintenance item," Casey said "Maintenance crews need to coet a fast readout of anything that rong on the last leg"

"Don&039;t they ask the pilots?"

"Pilots will report problems, but with a complex aircraft, there may be faults that never come to their attention, particularly since these aircraft are built with redundant systems For any important system like hydraulics, there&039;s always a backup - and usually a third as well A fault in the second or third backup may not show in the cockpit So the o to the Quick Access Recorder, which spits out data froet a fast profile, and do the repairs on the spot"

"But there&039;s no Quick Access Recorder on this plane?"

"Apparently not" she said "It&039;s not required FAA regulations require a CVR and a DFDR The Quick Access Recorder is optional Looks like the carrier didn&039;t put one on this plane"

"At least I can&039;t find it" Ron said "But it could be anywhere"

He was down on his hands and knees, bent over a laptopcoed into the electrical panels Data scrolled down the screen

A/S PWR TEST 00000010000

AIL SERVO COMP 00001001000

ADA INV 10200010001

CFDS SENS FAIL 00000010000

CRZ CMD MON INV 10000020100

EL SERVO COMP 00000000010

EPR/N1 TRA-1 00000010000

FMS SPEED INV 00000040000

PRESS ALT INV 00000030000

G/S SPEED ANG 00000010000

SLAT XSIT T/0 00000000000

G/S DEV INV 00100050001

GND SPD INV 00000021000

TAS INV 00001010000

"This looks like data froht control co, when the incident occurred"

"But how do you interpret this?" Richman said

"Not our proble it back to Norton The kids in Digital feed it to ht"

"We hope," Casey said She straightened "How er, Ron?"