Sherlock Holmes had a gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach ever since Molly died. Eighty-five people were on that flight and the investigators found eighty-five bodies. All of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition, but they found Molly Oliversson, from her bones and from her brown hair that seemed to survive the explosion.
But, where was her wedding ring? Sherlock had asked the authorities. 'Everybody else's jewelry had survived the crash, but where is Molly's ring? Her earrings were found and even her cheap metal bracelet was found, but no ring.'
They dismissed him. 'How can someone act like that after a tragedy like this?' they muttered to each other. 'It was an accident, not a terrorist act. There was no sign of it at all.'
The final verdict: instrument failure and possible pilot error. The aircraft, which left fromLondonand was headed toRome, was forced to divert towards Jersey to avoid a storm. Examination of the aircraft'sflight data recorder(FDR) revealed that shortly after this diversion, the aircraft'sairspeedbegan to fall to an alarmingly slow airspeed. In response, the pilots repeatedly increased power from the engines in order to maintain airspeed. Seeing no improvement in the aircraft's airspeed, the pilots then contacted the control tower inJersey Airportand requested clearance to descend to a lower altitude. After receiving no response, the pilots lowered the aircraft's wingslatsto maintain their altitude and lower the plane'sstall speed. When lowering the slats however, one of them was torn from the aircraft, causing catastrophic asymmetry in the airflow over the wings. The aircraft immediately became uncontrollable and crashed.
According to an investigation by theRoyal and French Air Forces, thePitot tube—the primary instrument for measuring the aircraft's airspeed—froze when the aircraft passed through a cloud, blocking the instrument and causing it to give a false reading. Compounding this problem was the failure of the alarm designed to report such a malfunction (raising serious questions about inspection irregularities by the Royal Air Force). Thinking that the aircraft was flying at dangerously low speeds, the pilots increased power to the engines and then deployed the slats. Far from flying at the low speed reported by the instruments however, the aircraft was actually exceeding its safe cruising speed, and far above a safe speed for deploying slats. During the deployment of the slats, one was torn off by the force of the high-speed airflow traveling over the wing, which caused the aircraft to become unflyable and enter a steep descent.
During the descent, the FDR recorded an increase in the airspeed from 300 to 800 km/h in three seconds, which could only signify the sudden unfreezing of the Pitot tube. Specialists estimated that the aircraft crashed perpendicularly to the ground at a speed of 1200 km/h, leaving a crater 70 meters wide and 10 deep
Nevertheless, Sherlock, John, and Lestrade all had the gnawing feeling that something wasn't right, even at her funeral. Both Sherlock and John stayed in their pajamas and robes for a week and a half. It had taken an intervention from Sarah, Lestrade, Mrs. Hudson, and, yes, Mycroft to get them out of their runt.
After that, John quit his job at the hospital and took Mycroft up on his offer to "spy" on Sherlock. Although, Sherlock and John were already frantically searching for Moriarty after Molly died they stepped up their searches considerably. Six months went by and Sherlock and John were no closer to finding Moriarty. Until one morning, when Sherlock and John lumbered up the stairs after a night of surveillance...