Chapter Five – Truth or Dare
"A lot of questions about the accident remains-"
Chairman John Field, Kevin Harrison's right hand man, sighed in annoyance and frustration as he turned off the TV in Conference room situated on the top floor of the Harrison Industries HQ. He glanced around the room, taking in the serious faces of the gathered men around the table.
Joshua Anderson, in charge of special operations, a man with icy blue eyes, leaned forward in his seat and glared at Field. "If our hit man had taken out that nosy reporter in the first place none of this would have happened," he said gruffly.
Raymond Riggs, sales director, another well-clad man in an expensive business suit, nodded in agreement. "I believe it was your hit man who failed, Joshua," he said sarcastically before turning toward Field. "I fail to see why he took the attack drone off course at such a critical moment. Now, the whole world thinks we've failed and we'll have problems with sales in the near future."
"The decision was perhaps a bit rash but Doctor Harrison believed it to be the best course of action to stop Maggie Whelan from spreading rumors about our illegal business and weapon dealings," John Field explained as he eyed the sales director sternly. "Had it worked we would have eliminated all our problems and been able to continue with our operations."
"Yes, if it had worked," The company's spokesman Mark Jones concurred. "The attack drone was supposed to have finished off that aircraft quickly, what kept it?"
Although the question was aimed directly at the Chairman it was the little man with large glasses at the near end of the table who answered. "The Concorde is a supersonic airliner that can maneuver almost as well as a smaller military jet. And, obviously, there was a very experienced and seasoned flight crew onboard," he said with a sigh.
"That's not the original problem," Jones said sourly as he turned his gaze directly toward Joshua. "I don't understand how Carl Parker managed to get to Maggie Whelan in the first place?"
"What is done is done," Field replied regrettably, trying to deflate the tension that was building in the room. "It's for us to pick up the pieces and deny our involvement in any of this."
"And just how do you propose we do that?" Jones exploded. "Our CEO tried to blow a freaking airliner out of the sky, not once but twice!"
"There will be consequences, unforeseen consequences," the smaller man with the glasses, one of Harrison Industries most renowned engineers, said gloomily.
"Calm down would you? The pilot of the French fighter plane plunged to his death, the salvage of the wreck will get the investigators nowhere. Also, the dead chief engineer of the FWA can't speak. His colleagues can't tell what he did to the aircraft and the Concorde itself is buried in the snow at the mountainside of the Alps," he reasoned. "It broke apart, it even exploded. All they know is that there were structural damages to the body of the aircraft."
"The pilots, they probably know what happened. Didn't you hear what the passenger said? The captain went out to check something," Jones insisted.
"So what do you suggest? That we eliminate them as well?" Field returned testily.
"Let's be rational here," the engineer reasoned. "Your job as spokesman for the company, Jones, is to see to it that there will be no suspicions cast upon us."
He nodded, having calmed down a bit. "I've already prepared a press release about Doctor Harrison's unfortunate accident during the charity campaign in Austria."
Anderson snorted. "He shot himself point blank, how do you explain that away?" he asked curiously with a sarcastic tinge to his voice.
"Why don't you handle Captain Moyer and leave the so called accident to me?" Jones challenged.
"And what about his wife and daughters?" Anderson pushed with a sneer. "What amazing story would you fabricate for them? I'm not sure they'll buy the cover story."
"Gentlemen," Field cautioned from where he stood at the end of the table.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the room.
"Now, our immediate concern are the documents that Maggie Whelan is now carrying with her. We do know, since she reported from the accident site that she still have them and that she will without any doubts expose our secrets unless we do something about it," Field reasoned coldly. "However, this is a delicate matter. She's rather famous while Carl Parker was not. The news of her demise will not be a footnote in the newspaper as his was."
"Do we know where she is?" Riggs asked.
Anderson nodded. "She's back in Washington, she arrived late having flown with the FWA from Innsbruck. She was met by a lanky man with brown hair at Dulles, they had an argument of some kind before leaving the airport in a cab," he reported.
"Is she back in her apartment?" Riggs pushed.
"No," Anderson replied calmly.
"You've lost track of her?" the sales director stated in annoyance as he threw the pen he'd been twiddling between his fingers on the table.
"She's currently residing in suite 202 at the Park Tower Hotel," the special operations manager answered with a wry smile. "An unfortunate accident will soon claim her life."
OOOOOO
After a quick breakfast in the bed and breakfast section of the medical practice Paul and Joe followed Jeffrey Alton, the union representative, to a secluded room on the second floor. There they met up with a newly arrived woman, named Line Sanders, who'd be the leading interviewer and in charge of gathering information about the crash from the crew, the passengers and eyewitnesses on site.
"Gentlemen," she said curtly albeit with a smile as she nodded at the trio already seated at the table for four. She sat down next to Jeffrey and acknowledged his presence.
It soon turned very clear that they'd worked together before and had respect for each other.
"Line Sanders," Jeffrey said by way of greeting and then turned to Paul and Joe. "This is Captain Paul Metrand and Captain Joseph Patroni."
"Good morning," she said. "First of all I want you to know that I'm not here to lay blame on anyone. I work for the safety board department and I'm here as an objective investigator in search of the truth."
The pilots nodded in understanding.
"Normally I'll conduct separate interviews but I see no reason too in this case. The interview will be recorded so that we, the people in the group that I represent, can go back and hear your answers again," she explained as she placed a tape recorder at the table.
Joe shrugged. "Fine by me," he said.
"Also, normally the aircraft would have a flight crew consisting of one captain, a first officer and a flight engineer," she said, looking from Joe to Paul and back again.
"As you're aware, Ms. Sanders," Joe began as he leaned forward in his chair and clasped his hands together in front of him. "The Federation World Airlines was making a goodwill flight to Moscow. The airline had just taken over the aircraft from the factory in France, it would have been the second leg in the first supersonic trip ever made from Washington to Paris to Moscow for an American airline," he explained.
Line nodded but her question was forestalled as Paul began to speak.
"The FWA was to lease the aircraft from the manufacturer and as part of the agreement it was required that they had a certified pilot for the special type of aircraft that the Concorde was," he explained. "I was near the end of a two year contract as a test pilot for the supersonic airplane and agreed to start flying commercially again for the FWA."
"I came directly from training and was newly certified for the type of aircraft," Joe filled in. "It was decided that Paul and I was to fly together on the goodwill flight and that I would lean on his expertise."
"Thereof the reason for two captains," Line deduced and then continued, conducting much needed information. "I'm under the impression that the first leg of the trip, between Washington and Paris, didn't go as planned."
"I do not see why that would be relevant for this investigation," Alton protested. "The aircraft was landed safely at Le Bourget, transferred for repairs to Charles de Gaulle and declared flightworthy by FWA maintenance the day after."
Line spared him an annoyed glance and then nodded in what looked like resignation. "I suppose you are right, Mr. Alton," she said and then refocused her attention on the two pilots sitting opposite her. "I would like to hear, in your own words, what happened in mid-air that led to the emergency landing here at the Alpine resort."
"There is nothing we can tell you that you will not be able to piece together by listening to the CVR," Paul said calmly but she could also hear the chilliness behind his polite statement.
"My apologies, Captain Metrand, but I still need a summary of the events that led to the decision of landing at the resort filled with skiing people."
"I suppose it would be fairer to say that the decision was made for us," Joe jumped in.
Line raised an impeccable eyebrow.
Paul narrowed his eyes at her as if trying to deduce her character as he leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest.
The tension in the room was palpable for a moment before Paul locked eyes with her and said; "We were cruising at a height of twenty thousand feet and had been flying so for the last twenty minutes when we suddenly heard a bang. We did an instrumental check, turned on the seatbelt sign and shrugged."
"After a few minutes we got a strange vibration on the yokes," Joe added seriously. "We decided to run a complete systems check but it was interrupted by a call from the cabin crew about a whistling and a banging noise coming from the midsection of the aircraft."
"Captain Metrand, I understand that you were in charge of the flight and therefore had the responsibility of-" she was cut off.
"Yes, I went back in the cabin to check for anything out of the ordinary although I had a fairly good idea about the scenario," he answered quickly. "When I'd passed the forward section of the passenger cabin I could easily see that something was wrong. The carpet was torn in places, shifting with the metal beneath it. In order to cause such behavior the structural integrity of the aircraft would have to be compromised."
"You're saying that the aircraft was coming apart in mid-air," she said solemnly, understanding the grave situation.
"Yes, when we ran the check on the cargo doors we couldn't get a reading on the one situated over the place where the carpet was being ripped apart," Joe filled in and glanced at his copilot. "I'm just glad that Paul managed to get back and take his seat in time before the whole thing blew off."
"The pressure put on the aircraft at that altitude caused the door to fall off, leaving a hole in the cabin. When structural integrity failed we lost pressure in the cabin and the Concorde was thrown into a downward spin. Primary systems failed, secondary systems appeared unresponsive for several seconds. We managed to retake control of the dive, correct the altitude and speed but not before we'd fallen ten thousand feet," Paul explained. "Something caused the fuel pumps to begin dumping fuel and with the drag caused by the structural damage to the underside of the cabin we had not enough left to make it to Innsbruck International Airport, which was said to be the closest airport for us to land."
"Then Paul remembered he used to ski at an Alpine resort in our vicinity," Joe said with a cunning smile. "We contacted flight control and asked them to alert the Swiss that we were coming and that we were going to attempt a landing on the mountainside. Then I'm sure you know the rest."
Line nodded. "So you consider your actions in response to the damage caused to aircraft to be correct," she stated.
"As of why the cargo door blew off mid-air I have no idea. It was out of my hands so to speak," Paul added.
"Are you suggesting it was caused by a malfunction?" she asked curiously.
"That is for you and your colleagues to find out, is it not?" Paul deadpanned. "However, when I flew the Concorde as a test pilot I never experienced anything like it."
"My apologies if you feel criticized by my interview, Captain Metrand," the woman said. "That was not my intention. I am merely trying to gather all the facts required to piece everything together."
"Look, Ms. Sanders, we do appreciate that but you have to realize that we don't like what you're insinuating. It might not be intentionally but we all know that someone will have to take the blame for this and as pilots we're an easy target- you know, human error and that sort of thing. However, in this case we did everything that regulations require, and more. We managed to put that bird on the ground without any fatalities and let me tell you; the odds weren't in our favor," Joe said seriously.
OOOOOO