Michael Crichton - Airframe

"Uh, Casey," Richman said.

"I see them," she said. She was not going to get rattled by a couple of floor goons.

The men walked steadily toward her. Suddenly a supervisor appeared in front of them, holding his clipboard, demanding the men show their badges. The men stopped to talk to the supervisor, glaring at Casey over his head.

"We won't have any trouble with them," she said. "An hour from now, they'll be gone." She went back to the scaffolding, picked up her briefcase. "Come on," she said to Richman. "We're late."

Chairs scraped as everyone pulled up to the Formica table. "Okay," Marder said, "let's get started. We're having some union activity, aimed at stalling this investigation. Don't let it get to you. Keep your eye on the ball. First item: weather data."

The secretary passed sheets around the room. It was a report from the LA Traffic Control Center on a form marked "Federal Aviation Administration / report of aircraft accident."

Casey read:

WEATHER DATA

CONDITIONS IN ACCIDENT AREA AT TIME OF ACCIDENT

JAL054 a B747/R was 15 minutes ahead of TPA545 on the same route and 1000' above. JAL054 made no report of turbulence.

REPORT JUST PRIOR TO ACCIDENT

UAL829 a B747/R reported moderate chop at the FIR 40.00 North/165.00 East at FL350. This was 120 miles north and 14 minutes ahead of TPA545. UAL829 made no other reports of turbulence. 100

FIRST REPORT SUBSEQUENT TO ACCIDENT

AAL722 reported continuous light chop at 39 North/170 East at FL350. AAL722 was on the same route, 2000' below, and approximately 29 minutes behind TPA545. AAL722 made no report of turbulence.

"We still have satellite data coming, but I think the evidence speaks for itself. The three aircraft nearest in time and location to Transpacific report no weather except light chop. I'm ruling out turbulence as a cause of this accident."

There were nods around the table. No one disagreed.

"Anything else for the record?"

"Yes," Casey said. "Passenger and crew interviews agree the seat-belt sign was never illuminated."

"Okay. Then we're done with weather. Whatever happened to that plane wasn't turbulence. Flight recorder?"

"Data's anomalous," Casey said. "They're working on it."

"Visual inspection of the plane?"

"The interior was severely damaged," Doherty said, "but the exterior was fine. Cherry."

"Leading edge?"

"No problem we could see. We'll have the aircraft here today, and I'll look at the drive tracks and latches. But so far, nothing."

"You test the control surfaces?"

"No problem."

"Instrumentation?"

"Bravo Zulu."

"How many times you test "em?"

"After we heard the passenger's story from Casey, we did ten extensions. Trying to get a disagree. But everything's normal."

"What story? Casey? You got something from the interviews?"

"Yes," she said. "One passenger gave a report of a slight rumble coming from the wing, lasting ten to twelve seconds…"

"Shit ," Marder said.

"… followed by a slight nose up, then a dive…"

" God damn it!"

"… and then a series of violent pitch excursions."

Marder glared at her. "Are you telling me it's the slats again? Have we still got a slats problem on this aircraft?"

"I don't know," Casey said. "One of the flight attendants reported that the captain said he had an uncommanded slats deployment, and that he'd had problems with the autopilot."

"Christ. And problems with the autopilot?"

"Screw him," Burne said. "This captain changes his story every five minutes. Tells Traffic Control he's got turbulence, tells the stewardess he's got slats. Right now I bet he's telling the carrier a whole different story. Fact is, we don't know what happened in that cockpit."

"It's obviously slats," Marder said.

"No, it's not," Bume said. "The passenger Casey talked to said the rumbling sound came from the wing or the engines, isn't that right?"

"Right," Casey said.

"But when she looked at the wing, she didn't see the slats extend. Which she would have seen, if it happened."

"Also true," Casey said.

"But she couldn't have seen the engines, because they'd be hidden by the wing. It's possible the thrust reversers deployed," Burne said. "At cruise speed that'd produce a definite rumble. Followed by a sudden drop in airspeed, probably a roll. The pilot shits, tries to compensate, overreacts-bingo!"

"Any confirmation thrusters deployed?' Marder said. "Damage to the sleeves? Unusual rubstrips?"

"We looked yesterday," Bume said, "and we didn't find anything. We'll do ultrasound and X rays today. If there's something there, we'll find it."

"Okay," Marder said. "So we're looking at slats and thrusters, and we need more data. What about the NVMs? Ron? The faults suggest anything?"

They turned to Ron Smith. Under their gaze , Ron hunched lower in his seat, as if trying to pull his head between his shoulders. He cleared his throat.

"Well?" Marder said.

"Uh, yeah, John. We have a slats disagree on the FDAU printout."

"So the slats did deploy."

"Well, actually-"

"And the plane started porpoising, beat hell out of the passengers, and killed three. Is that what you're telling me?"

No one spoke.

"Jesus," Marder said. "What is the matter with you people? This problem was supposed to be fixed four years ago! Now you're telling me it wasn't!"

The group fell silent and stared at the table, embarrassed and intimidated by Marder's rage.

"Goddamn it!" Marder said.

"John, let's not get carried away." It was Trung, the avionics head, speaking quietly. "We're overlooking a very important factor. The autopilot."

There was a long silence.

Marder glared at him. "What about it?" he snapped.

"Even if the slats extend in cruise flight," Trung said, "the autopilot will maintain perfect stability. It's programmed to compensate for errors like that. The slats extend; the AP adjusts; the captain sees the warning and retracts them. Meanwhile the plane continues, no problem."

"Maybe he went out of autopilot."

"He must have. But why?"

"Maybe your autopilot's screwed up," Marder said. "Maybe you got a bug in your code."

Trung looked skeptical.

"It's happened," Marder said. "There was an autopilot problem on that USAir flight in Charlotte last year. Put the plane into an uncommanded roll."

"Yes," Trung said, "but that wasn't caused by a bug in the code. Maintenance pulled the 'A' flight control computer to repair it, and when they reinstalled it, they didn't push it in the shelf far enough to fully engage the connector pins. The thing kept making intermittent electrical connection, that's all."

"But on Flight 545, the stewardess said the captain had to fight the autopilot for control."

"And I'd expect that," Trung said. "Once the aircraft exceeds flight params, the autopilot actively attempts to take over. It sees erratic behavior, and assumes nobody is flying the plane."

"Did that show up on the fault records?"

"Yes. They indicate the autopilot tried to kick in, every three seconds. I assume the captain kept overriding it, insisting on flying the plane himself."

"But this is an experienced captain."

"Which is why I think Kenny is right," Trung said. "We have no idea what took place in that cockpit."

They all turned to Mike Lee, the carrier representative. "How about it, Mike?" Marder said. "Can we get an interview or not?"

Lee sighed philosophically. "You know," he said, "I've spent a lot of time in meetings like this. And the tendency is always to blame the guy who's not there. It's human nature. I've already explained to you why the flight crew left the country. Your own records confirm the captain is a first-rate pilot. It's possible he made an error. But given the history of problems with this aircraft-slats problems-I'd look first at the aircraft. And I'd look hard."