Chapter 5
Jed, Abbey, CJ and Toby, were sitting in the office, sipping coffee. The entire plane was awake and trying to figure out what had just happened.
"Mr. President, this Colonel Hargrove, senior pilot. He will explain what is going on."
"Thanks, Ron. Colonel, that was a rude awakening."
"Sorry for that, Mr. President. We had some loss of cabin pressure and the alarms are automatic when it depicts the drop."
"What caused the alarms to be activated? You know that there was a false alarm with the landing gear only a month ago. Could this have been a false alarm?"
"Sir, we're looking into that. But we're making plans to land at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii as a precaution. We're about seven hours out now. We'll get everybody off and transfer you to another plane. The twin of this plane is already in the air, heading to Hawaii to pick you up. However, it'll be about eight or nine hours before that plane will arrive. But you shouldn't have to wait there very long."
Looking at the pilot, Jed sensed there was something else. "Colonel, is there anything else you should tell me?"
Colonel Hargrove looked at his Commander-in-Chief, then at Ron. Then he turned back to the President. "Shortly after we experienced the decompression, our instruments noted a drop in power in the engines. We're investigating that right now. And…"
"Just say it, Colonel."
"With decreased engine power, we can't fly around any weather. So in about fifteen minutes we should hit Tropical Cyclone Aku. Because of our current altitude of 17,000 feet, it'll get rough. The navigator has tried to find a way around it, but given our current circumstances, we don't have enough extra power to do so. So we'll have to fly directly through it."
Jed looked at Abbey and his staff. Then he turned back to the senior Air Force pilot.
"Any more good news?" he asked sarcastically.
"No, sir."
"Thanks Colonel, for the information. I'm sure the next few hours will be fun."
Jed's attempt at humor fell flat.
"Yes, sir."