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"Yes, sir"
"Good Deploy Mr Ingram&039;s slats"
The instructor reached over and pushed a button
Felix turned to Casey "Watch carefully, please"
On the video screen, the pilot remained casual, unconcerned But a few seconds later, he leaned forward, suddenly alert, frowning at his controls
Felix pointed to the instructor&039;s console, and the array of screens "Here you can see what he is seeing On his Flight Manage And he&039;s noticed it Meanwhile, you see the plane gives a slight nose up"
The hydraulics whirred, and the big cone of the siram now checks his slats lever, as he should He finds it is up and locked, which is puzzling, since it means he has an uncommanded slats deploy "
The si it over He has plenty of time to decide what to do The aircraft is quite stable on autopilot Let&039;s see what he decides Ah He decides to play with his controls He pulls the slats lever down, then up He&039;s trying to clear the warning But that doesn&039;t change anything So He now realizes he has a system problem on his aircraft But he reWhat will he do?He changes the autopilot paramshe descends to a lower altitude, and reduces his airspeed absolutely correct He is still in the nose-up attitude, but now at more favorable conditions of altitude and speed He decides to try the slats lever again"
The instructor said, "Should I let him off the hook?&039;
"Why not?" Felix said "I believe we have made the point"
The instructor punched a button The siraht He makes a note of his problem for the maintenance crews, and he continues on his way to London"
"But he stayed in the autopilot" Casey said "What if he went out of it?"
"Why should he do that? He&039;s in cruise flight; the autopilot has been operating the plane for at least half an hour"
"But suppose he did"
Felix shrugged, turned to the instructor "Fail his autopilot"
"Yes, sir"
An audible alarm sounded On the video screen, they saw the pilot look at the controls and take the stick in his hands The audible alarm ended; the cockpit became silent The pilot continued to hold the stick
"Is he flying the plane now?" Felix asked
"Yes, sir," the instructor said "He&039;s at FL two-ninety, point seven-one Mach, with autopilot disabled"
"Okay," Felix said "Deploy his slats"
The instructor pushed a button
On the syste flashed, first amber, then white Casey looked at the adjacent video screen and saw the pilot leaning forward He had noticed the warning in the cockpit
"Now," Felix said "Once again we see the aircraft nose-up, but this tis the stick backvery slightly, very delicatelyGood and now he is stable"
He turned to Casey "You see?" He shrugged "It is very puzzling Whatever happened to that Transpacific flight, it cannot be the slats And not thrusters either In either case, the autopilot will compensate and maintain control I tell you, Casey, what happened to that aircraft is a ht, Felix walked over to his Jeep, with a surfboard on top "I have a new Henley board," he said "Like to see it?"
"Felix," she said "Marder is starting to scream"
"So? Let him He enjoys it"
"What do you think happened to 545?"
"Well Let us be frank Flight characteristics of an N-22 are such that if slats deploy at cruise speed, and the captain goes out of the autopilot the aircraft is rather sensitive You reht after we ht" she said, thinking back "We put together a special teaht stability issues on the N-22 But we concluded there wasn&039;t a control-sensitivity problem, Felix"
"And you were correct" Felix said "There is no probleht stability with cohter cannot be flown at all without cohters are inherently unstable Commercial transports are less sensitive, but even so, computers shift fuel, adjust attitude, adjust CG, adjust thrust on the engines Moes, to stabilize the aircraft"
"Yes," Casey said, "but the planes can be flown out of autopilot as well"
"Absolutely," Felix said "And we train our captains to do that Because the aircraft is sensitive, when the nose goes up, the captain ain If he corrects too strongly, the plane noses over In that case he ently, or he is likely to overcorrect, so the plane would climb sharply then nose down once more And this is precisely the pattern that occurred on the Transpacific flight"
"You&039;re saying it was pilot error"
"Ordinarily I would think so, except the pilot was John Chang"
"He&039;s a good pilot?&039;
"No," Felix said "John Chang is a superb pilot I see a lot of pilots here, and soifted It&039;s e and experience It&039;sis one of the five or six best captains I have ever trained on this aircraft, Casey So whatever happened to Flight 545, it cannot be pilot error Not with John Chang in the chair I am sorry, but in this case, it has to be a problem with the aircraft, Casey It has to be that aircraft"
TO HANGAR 5
9:15AM
As they walked back across the vast parking lot, Casey was lost in thought
"So," Richman said, after a while "Where are we?"
"Nowhere"
No ether, that was the conclusion she ca solid so far The pilot had said it was turbulence, but it wasn&039;t turbulence A passenger gave a story consistent with slats deployment, but slats deployers The stewardess said the captain fought the autopilot, which Trung said only an incompetent captain would do Felix said the captain was superb
Nowhere
They were nowhere
Beside her, Rich He had been quiet allto him yesterday, had now proven too coed She had come to this point many times before It was no surprise the early evidence appeared to conflict Because aircraft accidents were rarely caused by a single event or error The IR tea to another, and then another In the end, the final story would be complex: a system failed; a pilot responded; the aircraft reacted unexpectedly, and the plane got in trouble
Always a cascade
A long chain of small errors andup, she saw a Norton widebody silhouetted against the sun As it passed over her, she saw the yellow Transpacific insignia on the tail It was the ferry flight froently, puffed sar 5
Her beeper went off She unclipped it from her belt
??? N-22 ROTR BURST MIAMI TV NOW BTOYA
"Oh hell," she said "Let&039;s find a TV" "Why? What&039;s the matter?" Richman said "We have trouble"
BLDG 64/IRT
9:20 AM
&039;This was the scene just o at Miami International Airport when a Sunstar Airlines jet burst into fla, showering the crowded runith a hail of deadly shrapnel"
"Aw, blow ineers were crowded around the TV set, blocking Casey&039;s view as she came into the room
"Miraculously, none of the two hundred and seventy passengers on board were injured The N-22 Norton widebody was revving for takeoff when passengers noticed clouds of black sine Seconds later, the plane was rocked by an explosion as the left starboard engine literally blew to pieces, and was quickly engulfed in flames"
The screen didn&039;t show that, it just showed an N-22 aircraft, seen fro froine," Burne snarled "As opposed to the right starboard engine, you silly twit?"
The TV noed close-ups of passengersboy of seven or eight said, "All the people got excited, because of the sirl who shook her head, tossing her hair over her shoulder, and said, "It was rully, rully scary I just saw the smoke and, like, I was rully scared" The interviewer said, "What were your thoughts when you heard the explosion?" "I was rully scared," the girl said "Did you think it was a bomb?" she was asked "Absolutely," she said "A terrorist bo his hands in the air "Do you believe this shit? They&039;re asking kids what they thought This is the news &039;What did you think?&039; &039;Golly, I sed my popsicle&039;" He snorted "Airplanes that kill - and the travelers who love theraht I was going to die Of course, you have to think that" Then a ed man: "My wife and I prayed Our whole family knelt down on the runway and thanked the Lord" "Were you frightened?" the interviewer asked "We thought ere going to die," the man said "The cabin was filled with smoke - it&039;s a ain: "You asshole! In a car you would have died In a nightclub you would have died But not in a Norton widebody! We designed it so you&039;d escape with yourlife!"
"Cal intently, waiting to see how far they&039;d take the story
A strikingly beautiful Hispanic wo up afrom their ordeal, their fate was far from certain earlier this afternoon, when a Norton widebody blew up on the runway, orange flaain showed the earlier telephoto shot of the plane on the runith serous as a doused campfire
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Kenny said "A Norton widebody exploded? A Sunstar piece-of-shit engine exploded" He pointed to the screen i which is just what I told them would happenl"
Casey said, "You told them?"
"Hell yes," Kenny said "I know all about this Sunstar bought six engines from AeroCivicas last year I was the Norton consultant on the deal I borescoped the engines and found a shitload of dae - blade notch breakouts and vane cracks So I told Sunstar to reject theain?" he said "Sunstar rebuilt the teardoe found a lot of corrosion, so the paper on the overseas overhauls was probably faked I told theain: Junk &039;em But Sunstar put the surprise - and the frag, so that nonfla It ain&039;t on fire because the fluid won&039;t burn And it&039;s our fault?&039;
He spun, pointing back to the screen
" seriously frightening all two hundred and seventy passengers on board Fortunately, there were no injuries "
"That&039;s right," Burne said "No penetration of the fuse, lady No injury to anybody The wing absorbed it - our wing!"
" and we are waiting to speak to officials froedy More later Back to you, Ed"
The camera cut back to the newsroom, where a sleek anchorman said, "Thank you, Alicia, for that up-to-the- explosion at Miae Now back to our regularly scheduled prograhed, relieved
"I can&039;t believe this horseshitl" Kenny Burne shouted He turned and sto the door behind him
"What&039;s his problem?" Richman said
"For once, I&039;d say he&039;s justified," Casey said "The fact is, if there&039;s an engine problem, it&039;s not Norton&039;s fault"
"What do you mean? He said he was the consultant - "
"Look," Casey said "You have to understand: We build airfraines and we don&039;t repair the? I hardly think - "
"Our engines are supplied by other companies - GE, Pratt and Whitney, Rolls-Royce But reporters never understand that distinction"
Richman looked skeptical "It see of the sort If your electricity goes out, do you call the gas company? If your tires blow, do you blame the car maker?"
"Of course not," Richines and all"
"No, it&039;s not," Casey said "We build the plane, and then install the brand of engine the customer selects Just the way you can put any one of several brands of tires on your car But if Michelin makes a batch of bad tires, and they blow out, that&039;s not Ford&039;s fault If you let your tires go bald and get in an accident, that&039;s not Ford&039;s fault And it&039;s exactly the sa unconvinced
"All we can do," Casey said, "is certify that our planes fly safely with the engines we install But we can&039;t force carriers to ines properly over the life of the aircraft That&039;s not our job - and understanding that is funda what actually occurred The fact is, the reporter got the story backward"
"Backward? Why?&039;
"That aircraft had a rotor burst" Casey said "Fan blades broke off the rotor disk and the cowling around the engine didn&039;t contain the fragine blew because it wasn&039;t correctlyabsorbed the flying frag of this event is that Norton aircraft are so well built that they protected two hundred and seventy passengers froine We&039;re actually heroes - but Norton stock will fall tomorrow And some of the public may be afraid to fly on a Norton aircraft Is that an appropriate response to what actually happened? No But it&039;s an appropriate response to what&039;s being reported That&039;s frustrating for people here"
"Well," Richman said, "at least they didn&039;t mention Trans-Pacific"
Casey nodded That had been her first concern, the reason she had rushed across the parking lot to the TV set She wanted to know if the news reports would link the Miaht incident the day before That hadn&039;t happened - at least not yet But sooner or later, it would