Justification For Killing

by Larry Hunt



  JUSTIFICATION FOR KILLING

  (Adventures of the Scarburg Family)

  by

  Larry Hunt

  Printed in USA

  Copyright © 2013 by : Larry Hunt

  Cover Design Copyright © Laura Shinn

  ISBN-13: 978-1480151802

  ISBN-10: 1480151807

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  Justification For Killing is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. In some instances actual facts and names are interspersed within the fictional account. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. Further note: this IS a work of fiction; it is not intended for use by serious researchers. The author has taken liberty with names – leaving some as history has named, changing others, altered places, events and sequences of event. In short, the author made the historical events fit the fictional storyline. Extensive use of the report of “President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy”, commonly called the Warren Commission (WC), Nov 29, 1963 has been used through out to lend credence to the plot of the story. In some instances the WC testimony and conclusions were used exactly as originally published; in other instances the author added to, subtracted from or embellished the WC findings.

  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

  A time to be born, and a time to die...

  (Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, Verses 1-2)

  Chapter One

  FLIGHT TO BANGKOK

  Cathay Pacific Flight 6073’s path of flight was directly over the North Pole heading toward the setting sun. Its blinding rays were directly in the pilot’s eyes - even the polarized sunglasses did not offer much protection. “How long before we make a course correction and turn south over Russia? I’ll be glad to get this blinding sun out of my eyes,” complained Captain Haskell Hunter, a veteran pilot of over twenty-eight years.

  The young co-pilot, Donald Walker, sitting in the right seat, turned to the old flier and remarked, “Captain, we have more to worry about than the sun in our eyes, just received an urgent weather alert - there is a large, weather system moving across Russia. It will move directly across our route as we fly south, and by the reports I’m getting, it’s a mean one! Oh! To answer your question Captain - course correction in twelve minutes, twenty seconds.”

  “Can we go around the storm?”

  “Afraid not Captain. I’ve just checked the International Flight Route Agreement. We are only allowed a deviation of fifty miles from our scheduled flight plan. This monster of a storm will swallow fifty miles and spit it back at us. What about going over?”

  “Negative, cloud tops are above six oh thousand (60,000) feet. We cannot get above four three thousand (43,000) safely as you know Donald.”

  “Yeah, right Captain, just thinking out loud trying to convince myself my numbers might be wrong. I guess we will just batten down the hatches, and fly through the beast the best we can.”

  It had been an hour or so since the Captain had announced their entrance into the Russian airspace on their way to the People’s Republic of China. All the passengers in First Class, Business and Economy, were settled back watching movies, reading, snacking, sleeping or toying with their laptops. Their world was warm, peaceful and quiet - up front in the cockpit a totally different scenario was beginning to play out.

  COLLISION! COLLISION!

  Around 8 p.m. the storm had totally blanketed the Chek Lap Chuk airport in Hong Kong. A growing backlog of planes circling above waiting to land had continued to increase. A couple of planes, both from Cathay Pacific also, had made requests for emergency landings, as they began to run dangerously low on fuel. A number of other aircraft from different carriers were being diverted from Hong Kong to airports on the Chinese mainland and to the island of Taiwan, northeast of Hong Kong.

  At that moment in the skies above Russia the same beast of a blizzard was taking a tremendous toil on Captain Hunter’s “Triple Seven” as the Boeing 777 was called. It was being tossed from side to side like a rag doll. One moment the plane was flying level, the next it was yawing at a forty or forty-five degree angle. The passengers were hysterical. Someone yelled, “We are going to die!” Another and another could be heard praying out loud... “Our Father, Which Art in Heaven...” A couple more had their rosary beads in their hands.

  As soon as the Captain could gain control and steady the aircraft another blast of turbulence would cause the plane to drop hundreds of feet. The aircraft then caught an updraft and just as swiftly ascended a couple of hundred feet. The passengers were scared; they weren’t the only ones, Captain Hunter and Co-pilot Walker were sweating bullets too.

  Without warning, if the turbulence, thunder, lightning and snow weren’t enough, the computerized female voice of the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) cockpit alarm began blaring out an emergency ‘Traffic Advisory’: “Warning! Warning! Execute evasive maneuver immediately! Warning! Warning!”

  Sam Lin and Si Lei Kim’s Fight 6073 was on a direct head-on collision course with an Airbus A330 in-route from Hong Kong to New York.

  Captain Hunter immediately switched on his landing lights, hoping the on-rushing pilot would be able to see his Boeing 777. Both Captain Hunter and Mr. Walker peered intently through the snow-covered, windshield searching for the source of the TCAS warning. The co-pilot scanned the radar screen. “There he is! There... there,” pointing with his finger at the display as though that would enable Captain Hunter to see the on rushing plane. Captain Hunter was scared; he brow was wet, and a bead of sweat had formed at the tip of his nose. Yes, he was scared, not so much for his own safety, but he had 350 souls on his Boeing’s manifest and there were, at least, another 300 plus on the Airbus. Combined, the count was over 650 passengers and crew, hurling toward each other on a deadly collision course in the skies over Russia. No one had ever survived a crash between two jumbo jets at their altitude, and at their speed. He knew the result was going to be an instant, painful death to all the passengers and crew on both planes.

  The planes were now less than five miles from each other, and the distance between them was closing, and closing fast. The distance between the two blips on the radar screen was getting closer and closer to each other as well.

  For some unknown reason, the oncoming Airbus’s TCAS alarm was not working properly, or there was something terribly wrong with its crew. Possibly they had taken a direct lightening strike. The reason was unimportant at this very moment. What was important – a head on collision was imminent.

  Both airliners, the Cathay Pacific 6073 and the Airbus, feature electronic or digital instrument displays known in the industry as ‘glass-cockpits’. These cockpits take the form of large LCD screens, not the old style dials and gauges. The earlier, traditional cockpits relied on mechanical gauges for information. No such gauges on these modern cockpits, they look more like something from a video game. Flight information is displayed as needed; however, Captain Hunter knew over fifty blackout incidents had occurred in the Airbus with glass-cockpits since the Airbus fleet came on line. A serious glass-cockpit blackout can cause the loss of half of a plane’s Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor (ECAM) system. The ECAM monitors t
he aircrafts functions and relays them to the pilot, it will also display failure messages. In certain cases, the pilot is instructed as to corrective procedures, which must be taken to correct the problem. It affects all displays as well as all radio, transponder, TCAS, and altitude indicators.

  Was losing ECAM bad? Bad was not a serious enough word to describe this life or death situation! A jet airliner, hurling through the air at over 400 mph, the results can be catastrophic. At this speed, the two planes were closing the distance between each other at the rate of a mile every five seconds. Captain Hunter realized a head-on collision was to occur within seconds, and he and his co-pilot were going to be the first on the scene. That was an extremely unsettling thought.

  Switching on the ‘Fasten Seat Belts’ sign Captain Hunter grabbed the intercom and yelled... yes yelled. He knew the manual said to remain calm, but the author of the book had never been in the cockpit of a 300-ton missile flying over half the speed of sound, which was aimed directly at another missile of equal size and speed. “Prepare for collision!! Prepare for collision!!” He yelled loudly. In the passenger compartment, flight attendants, recognizing the tone of the Captain’s voice, literally dropped trays of food and drinks, and began running up and down the aisle instructing the passengers in the proper crash positions before impact.

  Needless to say, the Kim brothers were now wide-awake. Shaking with fright Si Lei yelled back, “Sam Lin! Did the Captain say collision?”

  Without answering Sam Lin began grabbing their winter coats from the overhead storage bin. “Put your coat on immediately, fasten your safety belt tightly, put your pillow in your lap and bend over and place your head on it. Now!! Do it now Si Lei!!”

  Back in the cockpit Captain Hunter could see the oncoming Airbus in the flashes of lightening and blowing snow. He pushed hard on the yoke and right rudder causing the giant aircraft to begin a descent and a roll to the right, but Captain Hunter had been flying too many years - he knew a collision was inevitable - the plane was just too large and cumbersome to avoid crashing head-on into the oncoming Airbus. The moment of impact was just a couple of seconds away. Captain Hunter realized the inevitable. Turning toward his co-pilot he softly said with a degree of finality and calmness in his voice, “It’s been an honor flying with you Donald! May God be with you!”

  The words had barely left his lips when an object appeared off his three o’clock. It was heading toward them at an incredible speed. The Captain later estimated it had to have been traveling in excess of 3,000 miles per hour. It passed directly between the Captain’s Boeing 777-300 Cathay Pacific flight and the oncoming Airbus. Captain Hunter got a glimpse of it, but it was so fast a mere blink of the eye and he would have missed seeing the object altogether.

  The Captain could see the object was glowing as if it were hot. The surface appeared shiny. The craft was round and saucer shaped. He estimated it must have been at least one hundred feet in diameter. “Donnie, did you see that? Was it a UFO?” There was no response. The co-pilot was sitting in his seat with a death grip on the yoke, a blank stare on his ashen face. “Don! Don!”

  He muttered an answer. So softly Captain Hunter barely could understand, “Uh-huh... Uh-huh... Yes I did...Yes I did...Y... Yes...”

  “Don! Don snap out of it!”

  PREPARE TO CRASH! PREPARE TO CRASH!

  At that precise moment, a tremendous turbulence struck the battered 777. It was like running into the backwash of a hundred jet engines. The Captain could not maintain control of the plane - it immediately began to roll over... once... twice... on the third roll he began to get control and slowly leveled the plane, but the airliner was descending, descending fast. So fast Captain Hunter could not pull the yoke back to slow down the plunging aircraft. “Donald! Donald!”

  Snapping back to his senses, the co-pilot answered, “Yes! Yes! I’m here Captain. I’m here!”

  “Help me Donald, we’re going down, I can’t hold her any longer. Prepare to crash! Prepare to crash!” As they dropped down through the storm, the unmerciful blizzard was not abating. If anything, the snow intensified. Captain Hunter was watching the altimeter - 19000 feet - 18000 - 17000 - 16000 - 15000 - 14000 - 13000...

  “Landing gear? Landing gear Captain?” yelled the co-pilot. Without waiting for the Captain to answer Mr. Walker flipped the landing gear switch. At the same time, he was practically standing up pulling back on the yoke as hard as he physically could pull. His efforts combined with the same efforts exhibited by the Captain were beginning to take effect - the descent was beginning to slow.

  He now could see the ground - everything was white - white in every direction, 1200 feet - 1100 feet... Without realizing the wheels were already down and locked the Captain answered, “Roger Mr. Walker let the landing gear down. I can see ahead, it seems fairly flat.”

  At 500 feet, the planes landing lights were brightly illuminating the glistening white snow to their front, but Captain Hunter barely could see ahead. It was a blinding snowstorm. When he got an open glimpse the terrain seemed flat, suddenly the plane’s wheels touched, and it began to slide for what seemed like an eternity. The snow had cushioned the landing. The wheels, packed with snow, were not turning they were sliding. On and on they slid. Captain Hunter could see nothing out the front windshield, but a thick blanket of snow. He kept thinking any moment they would crash into some unseen obstacle which would cause the 777 to erupt into a fiery fireball. The fate of the airplane was out of the Captain’s hands, but he had never believed in fate – he placed his believe in a Higher Power. All he could do was hang onto the yoke and pray God was now hearing his desperate plea. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the plane stopped moving.

  There were no fires. The plane seemed to be intact.

  Of all the foolish things Walker said to Captain Hunter, “I couldn’t have done better myself.”

  All Captain Hunter could say softly was, “Thank you... thank you!!” as he looked toward the Heavens.

  Both the engines were still running - why? How is this possible, Captain Hunter thought? Reaching for the throttle controls, he cut the power to the two-turbofan engines. Their tremendous roar began to decline to a decreasing whine and then finally they were silent - no sound could be heard notwithstanding the screams emanating from the passenger compartment. The engines may have been quite, but the raging, howling blizzard heard through the planes metal walls was not silent. Before switching off the landing lights Captain Hunter, looking out the front, could see nothing but swirling, blowing snow. The snow wasn’t falling straight down it was being blown horizontally. Another time, another place this scene might actually be beautiful, he thought, but they were on the ground, where? Where he did not know. He only knew they were alive. Donald, white as the snow, which enveloped them muttered, “Well... well... any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, right...? Right Captain?”

  “Get the passengers off Donald! Get them off now!”

  Donald grabbed the cold steel handle to the door separating the cockpit from the passenger compartment - he did not know what to expect. Opening the door wider, he saw a mass of confusion in the dim glow. Once the engines were shut off the interior lights were operating off batteries. Panic and fear were running rampant among the passengers. People were screaming, babies were crying, and mumblings of prayers could be heard throughout the compartment. After two complete, 360 degree rolls, the cabin was a mess of objects - debris from the galley, personal belongings from the overhead bins, items from under the seats, and from their recesses over each passenger seat all the small, yellow, plastic nosepieces had descended to provide oxygen. Now they were all dangling, swinging and swaying. Suspended by their clear plastic tubing, giving an eerie appearance to the whole interior. In the semi-darkness, Mr. Walker shuddered, for a moment he thought they resembled hundreds of spiders - big, yellow spiders suspended from their webs on thin ropes of clear, plastic tubing. Taking a further look at the oxygen mask Donald thought to himself, ‘a shot
of oxygen might do ME some good about now too.’

  As the co-pilot continued his slow walk down the aisle, he continually tried to calm the passengers, “Everything is okay, we are okay, please everyone settle down. Get back into your seats and bundle up.” His actions exhibited a calming effect on the passengers who now were beginning to quieten down and respond to his commands.

  The flight attendants were beginning to move to the emergency hatches. Those hatches were equipped with the large inflatable escape slides. They were getting ready to open the doors in an effort to get the passengers out. This was by the manual – Standard Emergency Procedures.

  Seeing this, Walker screamed, “Hold on! Hold on!” Catching the first flight attendants by the arm he explained, “There are no fires, the engines are not running, we have not broken apart.” Turning to return to the cockpit he looked over his shoulder and remarked, “Let’s give this some thought before opening those exterior hatches. It has to be minus forty or fifty below out there. I need to speak to the Captain about this.” Loudly he yelled as he opened the door to the cockpit, “Until I get back, please, please DON’T open those hatches!”

  Returning to the captain’s side Walker helped the Captain shut down the final components of the aircraft before he could speak. The Captain turned to his co-pilot, “Is everyone getting off okay?”

  “That’s what I came to talk to you about Captain - the plane is okay - there are no fires, and I do not believe we are in any immediate danger.” He proceeded to explain how he thought they should stay on the airplane and not deplane the passengers. He emphasized that it had to be close to minus fifty degrees outside. And even if they got out they had no idea were they were or in which direction to travel. He thought most of the people would freeze to death before being rescued. His suggestion was to just stay put. “What do you think?”

  The Captain shut his eyes contemplating Mr. Walker’s report and their current situation, after a couple of seconds he spoke, “Good advice Don... leave them on the plane. That is the better of the two evils. We can’t survive out there, you’re right. Good... that’s good. Tell the flight attendants to have everyone bundle up - put on as much clothing as they can, and when the sun comes up maybe we’ll be able to assess our situation better.”

  A few of the passengers had scrapes, cuts and bruises from the rollovers, but luckily a couple of doctors were onboard as passengers, and they immediately began first-aid treatment. Approaching one of the doctors Walker asked if any of the passengers seemed critical. The doctor replied that the worst cases were nothing more than a couple of cuts and scrapes, which they handled with the aircraft’s first-aid kit, and a couple with mild concussions. But, surprisingly, everyone was in reasonable decent shape. No one had any broken bones. This was good news. Turning from the doctor he informed the flight attendants of the Captain’s decision to keep the passengers on board.

  Standing at the intercom station, Walker spoke, “Attention everyone! Attention! I am Co-pilot Donald Walker. Captain Haskell Hunter is still in the cockpit assessing our situation.”

  At the mention of Captain Hunter and Donald Walker’s name the passengers all broke out with enthusiastic applause in appreciation for their handling of the plane. Especially since they were now on the ground, alive.

  “Thank you, thank you very much. I’m sure Captain Hunter would appreciate your show of appreciation, but right now I need to fill you in on our situation. To begin with we almost had a catastrophic encounter with another passenger airliner. To avoid a head-on collision Captain Hunter had to take emergency evasive maneuvers, which I’m sorry to say you had to suffer through; however, we are on the ground... the bad news is we do not know exactly where we are, but the good news is we ARE on the ground, and still in one piece.”

  Another round of spontaneous applause broke out.

  Trying to raise the passengers spirits he offered a bit of humor, “Well, we may not know precisely where we are, but I assure all of you we are not lost... we know we are somewhere in Russia.” That brought a slight under the breath chuckling and more applause by the passengers.

  “Seriously though, we should be able to better evaluate our situation when morning comes. Until then, Captain Hunter wants you all to bundle up the best you can. It’s going to get cold in here, and without the engines, we have no way to provide heat. Try to eat and drink as much of the food in, or lying around the galley. In a couple of hours, it will be frozen solid and of no use. The Captain and I will be in the cockpit, so if we can be of service, please let us know. We have a couple of doctors on this flight. They have been considerate to offer their services, and we appreciate their help. If you need their assistance they said they would be more than willing to attend to your medical needs. Until morning try to stay warm and I will talk to you if we have any further news.” Replacing the microphone on its cradle he turned and re-joined Captain Hunter in the cockpit.

  Needless to say, they were in a quandary. Captain Hunter turned on the auxiliary power, which only supplied battery power to the ‘glass cockpit’ when the engines were not operating, and checked all the instruments on the front panel. He then checked the fuel gauge and saw they still had about half of their initial fuel load. He reasoned, could they restart the engines if the cold became unbearable. He also thought, what if we are here for days, maybe weeks. What will we do for food? Speaking to Walker, who had returned to the cockpit, the captain ordered, “Donald return to the galley section and find the emergency kit. We will need to go outside and set off one of the flares if we hear the approach of an airplane. We may not be able to get our bird back into the sky, but possibly another aircraft such as a helicopter could rescue us. Meanwhile, I’ll try to get an SOS out. I know the radio is not working, but I’ll see if I can find out what’s wrong with it; regardless, we can’t give up.”

  MORNING... FINALLY!

  Captain Hunter had finally drifted off for a few hours of much needed sleep - the interior of the aircraft was extremely cold, but fortunately the airline had provided plenty of pillows and blankets for all the passengers, so there were more than enough to keep everyone bundled up during the long, cold night.

  The following day came and went without incident, everyone stayed wrapped up and made the most of the available items they could salvage. Most had placed containers of edible food and bottles of water inside their garments. The heat from their bodies kept the items from freezing; therefore, no one was being deprived of food or water – yet. Food was not as plentiful, but the water was more than adequate to supply their needs. The restroom facilities were another matter. Sometimes necessity IS the mother of all inventions. One of the passengers, an electrician, unhooked the heater in one restroom from the planes’ normal power source and redirected it to the emergency, battery-powered circuit. It did not perform at peak efficiency but was warm enough to allow passengers to ‘attend to business’. When not being used for ‘official business’ individuals took turns inside the tiny room warming themselves. It might not have been a dainty sight, but it allowed for a few minutes of warmth – there were no complaints.

  No news of rescue today!! No sounds of a rescue plane had been heard either. The temperature outside was still in the forty to fifty degrees below zero range, so trying to walk to find civilization and help was out of the question. The life of anyone leaving the confines of this downed aircraft would be measured in minutes, surely not as long as an hour. The extreme low temperature was just too brutal.

  The morning of their third day, a bright light suddenly awakened Captain Hunter! His first thought was fire, but it was not fire but snow! Blowing, drifting snow had totally covered the cockpit windows. The brightness was... was... it was the sun’s rays penetrating the blanket of snow lighting up the interior of the cockpit.

  “Donald! Donald! Wake up. The sun is shining. And listen, the wind is beginning to diminish its howling. Come on let’s get outside and see if we can determine where we are?”

  “Huh? Huh, what
’d you say? What time is it?” Were the co-pilots muffled responses from underneath the blanket and coat he had used to cover his head. Removing his wraps he was amazed. “Is it Captain? It is! It’s really sunlight! You’re right, we need to get out and see where we are.”

  “You are correct Don, but how? How are we to get outside? We can’t use the doors to get out; opening those exits would let the forty below air on the outside come inside. My side window is useless it is frozen tightly shut. The emergency batteries are providing power to our communication system, I could not reach anyone, see if you can try to contact the International Airport at Hong Kong again. While you are working on that I will try to figure out how we can get outside.”

  “Captain, as you know, the radio frequencies are on a digital display. The display is not on the emergency battery circuit, so I cannot view it!

  “Right you are Donald, okay, use the manual setting and adjust to the 135.37 MHz frequency.”

  Setting the radio’s frequency Don squeezed his headset microphone and tried the radio one more time before he and the Captain tried to get outside, “Cathay Pacific 6073 declaring an emergency... come in Chek Lap Chuc... Mayday... Mayday... Cathay 6073 calling Hong Kong... Cathay 6073 calling anyone... anyone reading this station! Respond, please!” Sorry Captain, I’m not being received, or I might not be broadcasting. It appears we are... but I have no idea.”

  “Thanks, you can try again later.”

  The time was 8:04 a.m. local, Thursday morning.