Page 14 (1/2)
"Okay"
"And I&039;d prefer you notBill?" That was her husband
Casey nodded "Is that a problem?"
"Not at all" She looked at the tape in her hand "When?"
&039;To said
NAIL
5:55 PM
Casey took the second copy of the tape to the Norton Audio Interpretation Lab, in the back of Building 24 NAIL was run by a forenius naler, who built his own audio filter boards and playback equipment because, he said, he didn&039;t trust anyone to do it for hiencies interpret cockpit voice recorder tapes After an accident, the governton This was done to prevent theation was coencies had experienced staff to transcribe the tapes, they were less skilled at interpreting sounds inside the cockpit - the alarms and audio reminders that often went off These sounds represented proprietary Norton systems, so Norton had built a facility to analyze them
The heavy soundproof door, as always, was locked Casey pounded on it, and after a while a voice on the speaker said, "Give the password"
"It&039;s Casey Singleton, Jay"
"Give the password"
"Jay, for Christ&039;s sake Open the door"
There was a click, and silence She waited The thick door pushed open a crack She saw Jay Ziegler, hair down to his shoulders, wearing dark sunglasses He said, "Oh All right Coleton You&039;re cleared for this station"
He opened the door a fraction wider, and she squeezed past hiler immediately slammed the door shut, threw three bolts in succession
"Better if you call first, Singleton We have a secure line in Four-level scra&039;s come up"
"Security&039;s everybody&039;s business"
She handed hilanced at it "This is one-inch leton"
"We don&039;t often see this, at this station"
"Can you read it?"
Ziegler nodded "Can read anything, Singleton Anything you throw at us" He put the tape on a horizontal drulanced over his shoulder "Are you cleared for the contents of this?"
"It&039;s "
She said, "I should tell you that this tape is - "
"Don&039;t tell leton Better that way"
On all the reen lines juan to play "Uhokay," Ziegler said "We got high-eight audio track, Dolby D encoded, got to be a home video ca sound
Ziegler stared at hisfancy data, building three-di enerating slices at various hertz
"Footsteps," Ziegler announced "Rubber-soled feet on grass or dirt Countryside, no urban signature Footsteps probablyso Not too heavy But consistently off-balance"
Casey re up the path, away froe, with the child on his shoulder
"You&039;re right," she said, i sound - soler said, punching buttons The tweet replayed, again and again, the beads juler said finally "Not in the database Foreign locale?"
"China"
"Oh well I can&039;t do everything"
The footsteps continued There was the sound of wind On the tape, a ler said, "Aht five-nine to six-two, ain
He pushed a button, and one of theup the path The tape froze "Okay," Ziegler said "So what a here?"
Casey said, "The last nine ht 545 This caler said, rubbing his hands together "That should be interesting"
"I want to knohat you can tell me about unusual sounds in the moments just prior to the event I have a question about - "
"Don&039;t tellup his hand "I don&039;t want to knoant to take a clean look"
"When can you have soler looked at his watch &039;Tomorrow afternoon"
"Okay And Jay? I&039;d appreciate if you&039;d keep this tape to yourself"
Ziegler looked at her blankly "What tape?" he said
QA
6:10 PM
Casey was back at her desk a little after 6 PM There werefor her
FROM: S NIETO, FSR VANC TO: C SINGLETON, QA/IRT
F/O ZAN PING AT VANC GEN HOSPITAL FOLLOWING COMPLICATIONS FROM SURGERY REPORTED UNCONSCIOUS BUT STABLE CARRIER REP MIKE LEE WAS AT THE HOSPITAL TODAY I WILL TRY TO SEE F/O TOMORROW TO VERIFY HIS CONDITION AND INTERVIEW HIM IF POSSIBLE
"Nor"
"I&039;ll ot this" She handed Casey a fax
The single sheet appeared to be a page froazine The top read: "Eraph
Underneath the photo was a caption: "Captain John Zhen Chang, Senior Pilot for Transpacific Airlines, is our e&039;s father was a pilot, and John himself has flown for twenty years, seven of those with Transpacific When not in the cockpit, Captain Chang enjoys biking and golf Here he relaxes on the beach at Lantan Island with his wife, Soon, and his children, Erica and Tom"
Casey frowned "What&039;s this?"
"Beats me," Norrna said
"Where&039;d it coe, but no name
"A copy shop on La Tijera," Norma said
"Near the airport," Casey said
"Yes It&039;s a busy place, they had no idea who sent it"
Casey stared at the photo "It&039;s froazine?&039;
"TransPacific&039;s But not this month They pulled the contents of the seat pockets - you know, passenger announceazine - and sent it over But that page isn&039;t in theon it," she said
"I&039;d like to get a better look at this picture," Casey said
"I figured," Norma said
She went back to the other papers on her desk
FROM: T Korleton, QA/IRT
We have finalized the design parameters of the N-22 Virtual Heads-Up Display (VHUD) for use by ground personnel at don repair stations The CD-ROM player now clips to the belt, and the goggles have been reduced in weight The VHUD allows maintenance personnel to scroll Maintenance Manuals 12A/102-12 A/406, including diagrams and parts cutaways Preliminary articles will be distributed for coin 5/1
This Virtual Heads-Up Display was part of Norton&039;s ongoing effort to help the custo recognized that the majority of operational probleeneral, a properly maintained commercial aircraft would run for decades; some of the old Norton N-5s were sixty years old and still in service On the other hand, an iet in trouble - or crash - within ulation, the airlines were cutting personnel, includingthe turnaround tione from two hours to less than twenty minutes All this put intense pressure on las, saw it as in their interest to help creork more effectively That hy the Virtual Heads-Up Display, which projected the repair lasses for maintenance people, was so important
She went on
Next she saw the weekly summary of parts failures, compiled to enable the FAA to track parts problems more carefully None of the failures in the previous as serious An engine coine EOT indicator failed; an oil filter clog light illuminated incorrectly; a fuel heat indicator went on erroneously
Then there were more IRT follow-up reports from past incidents Product Support checked all incident aircraft every teeks for the next six months, to make sure that the assessment of the Incident Review Team had been accurate, and that the aircraft was not experiencing further trouble Then they issued a summary report, like the one she no on her desk:
AIRCRAFT INCIDENT REPORT
PRIVILEGED INFORMATION - FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY
REPORT No: IRT-8-2776 TODAY&039;S DATE: 08 April
MODEL: N-20 INCIDENT DATE: 04 March
OPERATOR: Jet Atlantic FUSELAGE No: 1280
NFA REPORTED BY: J Ramones LOCATION: PS Portugal
FSR
REFERENCE: a) AVN-SVC-08774/ADH
Subject: Main Landing Gear Wheel Failure During Takeoff
DESCRIPTION OF EVENT:
It was reported that during takeoff roll the "Wheel Not Turning" alert caht crew aborted the takeoff The nose landing gear (NLG) tires blew and there was a fire in the wheel hich was extinguished by fire trucks on the ground Passengers and flight crew exited via evacuation slides No reported injuries
ACTION TAKEN:
Inspection of the aircraft revealed the following dae
2 The Nue
3 The inboard flap hinge fairing sustained e
4 The Number 2 wheel was flat spotted with approxie to NLG axle or piston
Review of huht deck procedures require added carrier scrutiny