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She waited for Malone
Fivethe door behind her She earing a pair of flight test coveralls Her face ashed, her hair pulled back
And she was very angry
"I don&039;t knohat you think you proved up there," she said "You had your fun Taped the show Scared the shit out ofto change a fucking thing in our story Barker is right Your plane has slats proble is that the problem occurs when the autopilot&039;s off That&039;s all your little exercise deed Your plane&039;s a deathtrap And by the time we air our story, you won&039;t be able to sell one of those planes on Mars We&039;re going to bury your shitty little airplane, and we&039;re going to bury you"
Casey did not speak She thought: She&039;s young Young and stupid The harshness of her own judg froh older men at the plant Men who knew about power, as opposed to posturing and strutting
She let Malone rant awhile longer, and then she said, "Actually, you&039;re not going to do any of that"
"You fucking watchyou can do is report what actually happened on Flight 545 You"You fucking wait It&039;s a fucking deathtrap"
Casey sighed "Sit down"
"I&039;ll be goddamned if I will - "
"Did you ever wonder," Casey said, "how a secretary at a video house in Glendale knew you were doing a story on Norton? Had your cell phone number, and knew to call you?"
Malone was silent
"Did you ever wonder," Casey said, "how Norton&039;s attorney could have found out so quickly you had the tape? And then have gotten a sworn stateiven it to you?&039;
Malone was silent
"Ed Fuller walked in the door of Video I just a few minutes after you walked out, Ms Malone He orried about running into you"
Malone frowned "What is this?"
"Did you ever wonder," Casey said, "why Ed Fuller was so insistent you sign a docu you didn&039;t obtain the tape from a Norton e He doesn&039;t want the company to be blamed"
"Blamed by whom?&039;
"ByI don&039;t know The public"
"You better sit down," Casey said She opened the file
Slowly, Malone sat
She frowned
"Wait athat secretary didn&039;t call me, about the tape?" Casey looked at her "Then who called?&039; Malone said Casey said nothing "It was you!" Casey nodded
"You wanted me to have that tape?&039; "Yes" "Why?" Casey smiled
She handed Malone the first sheet of paper "This is a parts inspection record, stamped off by a PMI at the FAA yesterday, for the nuht 545 The part is noted to be cracked and defective The crack is old"
"I&039; a parts story," Malone said
"No," Casey said "You&039;re not Because what flight test showed you today is that any co initiated by the bad part All the pilot had to do is leave the plane in autopilot But on Flight 545, he didn&039;t"
Malone said, "We already checked that The captain of 545 was an outstanding pilot"
"That&039;s right," Casey said
She passed her the next piece of paper
"This is the crew ht plan, on the date of departure of Flight 545"
John Zhen Chang, Captain 5/7/51 M
Leu Zan Ping, First Officer 3/11/59 M
Richard Yong, First Officer 9/9/61 M
Gerhard Reimann, First Officer 7/23/49 M
Tho, First Officer 6/29/70 M
Henri Marchand, Engineer 4/25/69 M
Robert Sheng, Engineer 6/13/62 M
Malone glanced at it, pushed it aside "And this is the crew ot from Transpacific the day after the incident"
JOHN ZHEN CHANG, CAPTAIN 5/7/51
LEU ZAN PING, FIRST OFFICER 3/11/59
RICHARD YONG, FIRST OFFICER 9/9/61
GERHARD REIMANN, FIRST OFFICER 7/23/49
HENRI MARCHAND, ENGINEER 4/25/69
THOMAS CHANG, ENGINEER 6/29/70
ROBERT SHENG, ENGINEER 6/13/62
Malone scanned it, shrugged "It&039;s the sa is listed as a first officer In the second list, he appears as an engineer"
Malone said, "A clerical error"
Casey shook her head "No"
She passed another sheet
"This is a page fro Captain John Chang and his faht attendant, anted us to know the real story You will notice his children are Erica and Tho the flight crew of Flight 545"
Malone frowned
"The Changs are a fa is a pilot, qualified on several commuter aircraft He is not type certified to fly the N-22"
"I don&039;t believe this," Malone said
"At the ti, had left the cockpit and walked to the back of the plane for coffee He was aft when the accident occurred, and severely injured He underwent brain surgery in Vancouver two days ago The hospital thought it was the first officer, but his identity has now been confir her head
Casey handed her a memo:
FROM: S NIETO, FSR VANC
TO: C SINGLETON, YUMA TEST FAC
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
AUTHORITIES NOW CONFIRM THE POSTMORTEM IDENTIFICATION OF INJURED CREW MEMBER IN VANCOUVER HOSPITAL AS JOHN ZHEN CHANG THE CAPTAIN OF TRANSPACIFIC FLIGHT 545
"Chang wasn&039;t in the cockpit," Casey said "He was in the back of the plane His hat was found mere So someone else was in the captain&039;s chair, when the incident occurred"
Casey turned on the television, started the tape "These are the concluding moments of the videotape which you obtained fro toward the front of the plane, and twisting to eventually lodge in the cockpit door But before it doeshere!" She froze the fraht deck"
"I can&039;t seeaway"
"You can see that the pilot has extremely short hair," Casey said "Look at the picture Tho her head, strongly now "I just don&039;t believe this That visual is not good enough, you have a three-quarter profile, it doesn&039;t identify, it doesn&039;t say anything"
"Tho has a sazine photo And on the video, you can see the saht there"
Malone was silent
Casey pushed another piece of paper across to her
"This is a translation of the Chinese voice communications in the cockpit as recorded on the tape you have A great deal of it is unintelligible because of the cockpit alare is marked for you"
0544:59 ALM stall stall stall
0545:00 F/O what (unintelligible) you
0545:01 CPTN aible) correct the