Page 5 of Air Force One
They spoke few words, and those were in some sort of pilot code. He wished Miranda was here to translate as he and Roy had only ever been ground pounders. But he’d picked up enough of the lingo from her to know that things were not going well.
“Negative restart on Three and Four.”
That part he understood.
“Calculate best glide settings.”
Glide? As in powerless glide? He’d always assumed that a 747 was more in the flying-brick category. Or was that the space shuttle? This bird had big wings; she must have some ability to glide.
“There goes Number Two.”
Sure enough, the descending note of another engine fading in a long glissade sounded from the other side of the plane. He knew that a 747 couldn’t maintain altitude on a single engine, but would it be enough to reach land?
Roy Cole moved out of his seat behind the desk and buckled in on the couch beside his wife.
That left Drake alone by the desk with the President’s phone. He unmuted it as the last engine began its decline. The plane became eerily quiet with only the roar of the wind over the smooth lines of the fuselage. They still had power, so the auxiliary power unit must be running, but it was no more than a generator somewhere in the plane’s tail.
“Report.”
“Four-engine failure.” This time it was General Owen who replied. “It may be possible to restart them once we descend into thicker atmosphere below fifteen thousand feet, but I don’t want to sacrifice any altitude to test that sooner rather than later.”
“Cause of failure?”
“Unknown. It doesn’t make any sense. They simply shut down. We still have over fifty-percent fuel load, and I can verify that by the gauges as well as the feel of the aircraft.”
“How about dumping fuel? Will that get us back to land?”
“Slower but not farther. Glide rate remains constant. Nice try, General, but unless we can get a restart, she’s going to come down where she’s going to come down. Sandra is talking to the ground for troubleshooting.”
“If you can’t restart?”
“We technically have the glide slope to reach the Delaware shore with some leeway.”
Drake could hear the however and waited for Owen to continue.
“But the jet stream is driving hard today. It was giving us a hundred-and-thirty-kilometer-per-hour advantage. That is now a disadvantage. She’s not as good a glider as the new birds.”
“The ones that are five years behind schedule.”
“Right. We will descend out of the jet stream effect closer to land, but the tradeoff of dropping altitude now versus distance…”
He left it hanging, and Drake didn’t push him.
“Do your best, General Owen.”
“Roger that, General Nason.” It was far too much like saying goodbye. Owen must have thought the same as he didn’t leave the call connected.
General Owen’s open announcement five minutes later over the PA echoed down the length of the massive jet. Though Air Force One was full of civilians, it was a military jet. He did nothing to sugarcoat his words—or their chances.
It confirmed that today the general’s best wasn’t going to be good enough.
4
Drake waited as long as he could stand it, about twenty seconds, before excusing himself from the crushing silence that enveloped the President’s office. The First Couple deserved some quiet time together, especially if it proved to be their last. He mumbled out something about going to see if he could be of any assistance. They all knew he couldn’t.
He and Roy kept it to a simple handclasp for their decades of friendship and eight years of service together. Neither of them had any words.
Rose unbuckled her seatbelt and stood with the innate elegance of the great hostess she was and gave him an unexpectedly hard hug. She also bestowed a kiss on his cheek before returning to her husband’s side. Even she found nothing to say.
