Free Fall

by Rick Mofina

  She heard the distinct sound of floorboards creaking around the corner. Thinking that it might be the person she’d called to for help, Kate went to the corner to thank them and tell them the elevator was now working.

  She caught her breath.

  No one was there.

  Kate swallowed hard.

  Attributing it all to the side effects of a busy day, she went to her door, entered her apartment, locked the locks and slammed home the dead bolts.

  Eighteen

  Washington, DC

  Tension was etched in the faces of the experts preparing to analyze Flight 4990’s flight data recorder, or FDR.

  They had met on the sixth floor of National Transportation Safety Board headquarters at L’Enfant Plaza. The room was devoid of the usual small talk, Jake Hooper thought, taking a sip of black coffee as the chair ran down meeting rules for the people at the table. They were from the FAA, the pilots’ union, the airline, the recorder’s maker, the plane’s manufacturer and the NTSB.

  Hooper knew the rules by rote. They were similar to those of the group that had met earlier to listen to twenty-five minutes of crew conversation downloaded from the plane’s CVR, the cockpit voice recorder.

  We’re moving pieces into place but this case has twists.

  The FBI had just advised the NTSB that a news agency had received an email from a party claiming responsibility for the flight’s loss of control and was threatening to do it again with another plane. The message—whether a hoax or somehow credible—was unnerving.

  The stakes had been raised.

  There was also the captain’s insistence that there had been no clear-air turbulence, and that the crew did not disable the safety features to make control inputs. And now the release of the dramatic video of the turmoil 4990’s cabin had raised the profile of the incident.

  “Shall we get started?” Ivor Carver, the NTSB’s flight data recorder specialist, began by summarizing information on the digital flight data recorder, the model—a Sun-Signaler—and the parameters recorded.

  “Data readouts have been circulated, and I want to underscore and remind everyone this is nonvalidated, preliminary data.”

  Pages were shuffled and throats cleared as Carver continued.

  “As you can see, we’ve overlaid preliminary FDR plots with the characterizations of the text from the cockpit voice recorder, correlating them with radar and other data. Moving forward, we’ll keep an eye to ranges, accuracies and resolutions. Okay, so let’s look at the parameters.”

  The FDR recorded the aircraft’s various systems, covering nearly one hundred aspects, from changes in altitude, thrust, control inputs and airspeed. One by one, the investigators read, interpreted and assessed each reading. Hooper took notes, concentrating on several areas he considered key, such as autopilot engagement, the automatic flight control system, the computer failure indicator, cockpit trim and all cockpit flight control input—the control wheel, control column and rudder pedal.

  Hours later, as they concluded studying the last areas, Fred McCullers, Sun-Signaler’s expert, offered his observation.

  “It’s clear the data recorder was functioning properly.”

  “And I don’t see any issues with the fly-by-wire system,” said Erna Valentine, the lead engineer with Richlon-Titan.

  “You’re absolutely certain there was no malfunction?” Hooper asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What about an episodic failure?”

  “No evidence of one here. It would’ve been recorded.”

  “What about system vulnerabilities?” Hooper said.

  “You’re alluding to the claim the FBI is investigating,” Valentine said. “The suggestion that someone seized control of the aircraft from the crew?”

  “We can’t ignore it.”

  “That scenario is impossible. The claim’s a prank. The system doesn’t talk to the outside world.”

  “What about through the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System and the other wireless systems aboard? Perhaps they have vulnerabilities we’re not aware of?”

  “Absolutely not. Everyone at this table knows they’re stand-alone systems that cannot be breached. Richlon-Titan designed and pioneered the new state-of-the-art, fly-by-wire systems for all the RTs and other aircraft around the world. They’re absolutely secure.”

  “Let’s come back to the pilots, who’ve stated that they encountered a system malfunction.”

  “Frankly, I don’t buy it,” Valentine said. “It had to be clear-air turbulence, which does not emerge on radar. It caused the captain to switch off the safety features, take control and overreact. You have to remember, this pilot’s record shows that he’s dealing with serious personal issues. An antidepressant was found in his blood. He was a prime candidate for distraction.”

  “For the purposes of this meeting—” Gus Vitalley of the pilots’ union shot an icy glance to the chair “—we’re required to stick to the facts concerning the flight data recorder and not veer into speculation.”

  “Those are facts, Gus,” Valentine said. “Facts we need to consider in light of the preliminary evidence before us.”

  The meeting continued for another forty-five minutes before it concluded.

  Alone in his office, Hooper flipped through his notes while consulting the FDR readout, mentally gnawing on the facts the way Pax went at a bone.

  The plane had made two abrupt ninety-degree rolls. It shouldn’t have done that. Something was up. Why had the safety features of the fly-by-wire system been disabled? That was only supposed to happen in an emergency, such as a situation involving severe clear-air turbulence. But Raymond Matson maintained that there had been no turbulence and that he hadn’t disabled the safety system.

  But there it was.

  The records didn’t lie.

  Somehow that system had been turned off.

  Nineteen

  Clear River, North Dakota

  Veyda was wearing a diaper and a T-shirt, and sucking on her bottle as she toddled into his study. He was working at his computer keyboard and she pressed against his knee, raising a tiny arm, forcing him to hoist her gently to his lap. She snuggled into his chest, falling asleep with her bottle as he worked with one hand while holding her with the other.

  Elizabeth had captured the moment on video.

  There were a few other videos and photos from their trips to Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral but he was often missing from ones taken at Christmas, birthdays and school events.

  Looking at them now, on his computer in the gloom of his rented house, Robert Cole swallowed his pain with whiskey, letting the warmth of the alcohol flow through him. No matter how he steeled himself, no matter how much he drank, it tore him apart to look back at what he’d lost.

  For not only was Elizabeth gone—he’d lost Veyda, too.

  She’d been a brilliant child with an intuitive, analytical mind, an exceptional little girl. In her adolescent years, she’d read her mother’s medical textbooks, his engineering books, then their philosophy books. Plato, Nietzsche, Lao Tzu and Descartes had been her favorites. She’d forever been questioning them on subjects and concepts.

  Have you ever seen a person’s soul, Mom?

  What is eternal consciousness?

  How do jets fly, Dad?

  Veyda had loved looking over their shoulders whenever they’d worked at home, absorbing whatever she could.

  But those moments had been rare for him because he’d always been at the plant, never around to do normal dad things, like taking Veyda to a museum, or going with her and Elizabeth on a hike, or helping Veyda with the science projects she’d worked so hard on. His job had always come first and before he’d realized it, the years had slipped by and Veyda had left home for college.

&
nbsp; Their time together had been all but gone.

  As Veyda accumulated one academic achievement after another, he and Elizabeth had seen less of her, which had made the few visits they’d had more meaningful—until the day of the accident.

  He drank more whiskey.

  Veyda had suffered a serious head injury in the crash. For months after the tragedy she’d undergone treatment and therapy before returning to MIT, determined to get her PhD as her way of honoring her mother’s memory, but in that time she’d grown distant and cold toward him. When he’d flown to Boston to spend time with her, she’d missed a dinner date with him, and had been late meeting him at his hotel. She’d behaved as if she’d resented his presence. It was as if she’d become a different person. Then, after he’d returned to California, she’d sent him an email.

  I will never forgive you for what you’ve done. You loved your work more than us. In killing my mother you killed part of me. I no longer want you in my life. I never want to see you again. You are not my father and I am not your daughter. You’re a sad, ordinary man who contributes nothing to this world and I hope you die knowing that.

  Her words had pierced him.

  Veyda couldn’t have meant what she’d said, he’d thought, blaming it on her injury. In the days and weeks after her email, he’d tried to reach her through the school, her doctors, her therapists and, thinking she might harm herself, even police. But it had been futile. Veyda was an adult and not a threat to herself or others.

  I’m afraid this is a private matter, sir, and not one for police, the officer had told him.

  All of Cole’s efforts to contact her, find her, speak to her and reconcile their relationship had been in vain. They’d become estranged and she’d vanished from his life, living on her trust fund and a portion of the insurance money they’d received from the crash. Cole had withdrawn into himself. Unable to function professionally, he’d lost his job, sold their house in Burbank and moved here to North Dakota where every day, haunted by her accusations, he tried to drown his guilt with alcohol.

  But he failed because what Veyda had said was true.

  The evidence stared back at him from the photos he’d saved. There were more pictures of him at work than with his family. At the time of the tragedy, he’d been one of Richlon-Titan’s top quality-assurance engineers overseeing the fly-by-wire system. He’d been a highly regarded expert. He’d been asked to work with the US Air Force and national security organizations on system applications for classified projects, and he had often been called upon to provide technical help to the NTSB on crash investigations. Over the years, he’d developed professional friendships with NTSB and FAA people who’d respected his work.

  He took another drink.

  There was no denying it—he loved aviation and he’d loved his job. He’d enjoyed going to the RT plant each day in Burbank. Entering the massive hangar where they’d built planes, seeing the sections of fuselage, the scaffolding, the assembly jigs and hearing the rat-a-tat-tat of the riveting guns—he’d loved it all.

  Moreover, he’d lived for the challenge of helping design, install and maintain RT’s digital fly-by-wire system, an extraordinarily complex control system that enabled the aircraft to be controlled by electronic signals. The basic principle meant that pilot-initiated flight controls were converted to electronic signals that were then processed by flight control computers.

  The system was programmed with flight control laws that provided hazardous flight envelope protection for such things as speed, bank, angle of attack and pitch attitude. The safety features essentially assured that the inputs made by the crew were within the limits of the plane’s capability.

  However, if the crew was suddenly confronted with an unusual emergency, RT’s system provided for the safety features to be manually disabled, allowing the crew to manually direct the aircraft to perform beyond programmed safety limits.

  Safe operation of RT’s system was paramount. It was backed up five different ways to guard against problems such as a system failure, or the malfunction of any of the onboard computers, or loss of power.

  Then there was the question of security.

  Ah, yes, security.

  He took another drink.

  Was the fly-by-wire flight-management system vulnerable to interference by satellite transmissions or solar storms? Cole’s team had ensured that it was protected against such occurrences.

  Perhaps the most contentious concern had been the one about the system’s vulnerability to a cyber attack. Was it possible for someone to seize control of the aircraft remotely? Again, based on several overarching facts, Cole’s team had been confident the answer was no. Ultimately, the flight-management system and the autopilot were controlled by the crew. The avionics systems had been designed and built with extremely high levels of security.

  From time to time, reports would emerge indicating that the computer systems used in commercial jetliners today could be hacked. But such claims were always baseless.

  Then an assertion surfaced at a global IT security conference in Manila that had prompted Cole’s team to reevaluate the security of the RT system. A former pilot and computer security consultant had told the conference that he’d purchased software online that he’d adapted to infiltrate the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System and the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast System. These systems transmitted short messages between aircraft, satellites and ground stations. The consultant had said that by infiltrating the two systems, he had the capability to land or crash any plane in flight. He’d used a flight simulator and given an audiovisual presentation to demonstrate his findings.

  The NTSB and the FAA, as well as several aviation bodies around the world, had refuted the consultant’s claim, stating that it might work in theory on a flight simulator, but it was not possible to interfere with flight-certified hardware as he’d described. Initially Cole’s team had agreed, but while they’d been reviewing RT’s system, Cole had discovered something alarming.

  Something that they’d missed.

  There was a “back door” via a connection between the aircraft’s computing systems that was unsecured and could be exploited by a skilled hacker to gain access to critical flight systems. All that was needed to exploit the weakness was to establish a framework of malicious codes to override the plane’s security software.

  Cole had alerted RT’s senior engineers to the flaw in the flight-management system, clearly indicating that it could be hacked. It’d meant that they would have to ground the fleet for a retrofit. He’d worked on a proposal to redesign and install a more secure system at an additional cost of nine million dollars per aircraft.

  Executive members of the company had been stunned. They’d disagreed with Cole’s proposal. Under the direction of Hub Wolfeson, a powerful executive, and without Cole’s knowledge, the board had used RT’s European operations to launch a retest of the existing system. That review concluded the existing system was secure and that Cole’s theory was wrong. Cole had been angry, and after he’d managed to gain access to the European tests, he’d argued that the tests were inaccurate and therefore ineffective.

  Again, he’d insisted the fleet be grounded and his proposal be implemented. Senior engineers and company board members, again led by Wolfeson, had been poised to review his request during the time Veyda had visited. Cole had been told that the board’s response would take days. He’d tried to put it aside, when suddenly he’d received a text saying that upon review, the board had agreed with the European results and had denied his latest proposal to ground and retrofit the fleet.

  Cole had been responding to those texts at the time of the car crash.

  In that moment, the life he’d known had come to an end.

  He swallowed more whiskey. A lot more.

  And now we have the EastCloud incident. The fools. I told
them. I warned them. They think they’ve got a safe airplane.

  Cole reread the news stories on the mystery surrounding the horror of EastCloud Flight 4990 and replayed the video of the terrified passengers over and over.

  I know what happened and it’s going to happen again. I’ve got to do something. Washington. I know somebody in Washington. I know what happened to Forty-nine Ninety! It’s going to happen again, I tell you!

  Cole reached for his phone but heard the sound of clinking glass as he fell to the floor, drunk, and passed out.

  He lay unconscious in the darkness, still gripping his phone, while on his computer monitor horrified passengers screamed for their lives.

  Twenty

  London, England

  The sprawl of metropolitan London flowed under Shikra Airlines Flight 418 as it approached Heathrow.

  The six-hour flight from Kuwait City had been a smooth one for Captain Fahad Al-Anjari, the crew, and for their two hundred passengers aboard the Starglide Blue Wing 250.

  Al-Anjari was one of Shikra’s top pilots with some twenty-five years’ experience with the Kuwaiti airline. His seniority afforded him the Kuwait City–to–London route, considered one of the airline’s plum assignments. Al-Anjari had flown it nearly a hundred times and had always enjoyed it.

  He loved flying the Starglide Blue Wing 250. It was a modern plane, equipped with easy-to-use computers, and had an admirable safety record. It responded well in all conditions, and always gave a smooth ride.

  He loved the views over London, starting with the Thames. Each time he saw it, he thought of Joseph Conrad’s passage in Heart of Darkness about the river evoking a large snake twisting deep into the country.

  Flight 418 continued its descent and was minutes from landing. It was vectored for a visual approach to Heathrow’s Runway 27L, the airport’s southern runway. The autopilot and autothrottle were engaged. As the jetliner passed over the rows of homes crammed together in Hounslow, a suburb bordering the airport, it was ninety seconds from touchdown.