Sam said, “Guess that answers how he got on board.”
“It gets better. According to the lead investigator in Berlin, the ballistics match those of the two shots on board the Dreamlifter.”
“Right. So at least we have our murderer.”
“Well, the face of our murderer,” Elise agreed. “And before you ask, no, I can’t find it on my system anywhere.”
Sam stared at the image of the murderer’s face. “All right. At least it’s something. Someone, somewhere, is going to recognize this man.”
Tom stared at the face. “All right. So, now that we know this guy killed all three pilots. The question is, why?”
“That’s obvious. They wanted whatever the Dreamlifter was transporting.”
Elise said, “Sure, but when I checked with the aircraft’s manifest, it reports being on a dry run to Quonset Point, Rhode Island.”
“No shit?” Sam asked, taking the iPad. “Let me see that.”
Elise smiled. “What are you thinking?”
“I’d like to know why ever since we started investigating the Dreamlifter, everybody has been lying to us?”
Tom said, “Okay, so the bad guy causes the plane to make a water landing — which, may I remind you, is one of the deadliest procedures in aviation, with only a few successful cases in history with an aircraft of this size — for what purpose? Why didn’t he just shoot the two real pilots and fly whatever secret part was stolen to wherever it is that he wanted to take it?”
“Because a Boeing 747 Dreamlifter’s a pretty hard thing to lose. Radar would keep track of it during and after takeoff. It would be nearly impossible to land the aircraft somewhere without the owners finding out.”
“So, instead. He set about an elaborate plan to bring the aircraft down in the Barents Sea.”
“Exactly.”
“All right. So how did he bring it down?”
Elise said, “I can answer that.”
Sam smiled. “Really?”
Elise smiled. “Yeah, remember how he logged his laptop into the maintenance BUS, looking like he was trying to correct the fault?”
“Sure.”
“He used the BUS to hack into the aircraft’s primary flight display, mirroring the primary flight data with a fictional data interface from his own laptop. In doing so, he made it appear that the instruments had returned to normal — remember how he’d told the pilot and copilot that he’d switched to the secondary flight data system, and that seemed to fix the problem?”
Sam nodded his head in agreement. “Go on.”
“But instead of transferring the aircraft over to the secondary flight data system, our bad guy simply overrode the primary with his own version — mirroring the real primary flight display. He then carefully manipulated the values of each instrument, forcing the pilot to alter course to meet the artificial runway.”
“But the pilots should have noticed that?”
“And they might have. The third pilot used a strategy designed to foil both pilots, despite their experience and systems that might have prevented the crash. He created a situation recreating the 2009 crash of Air France 447. The pilots in control of the Airbus A330 from Paris to Rio de Janeiro were relying on a highly-automated, fly-by-wire autopilot. This advanced autopilot not only did what the pilots programmed, but interpreted those instructions into a flight normally optimized for comfort and safety. The plane went into a storm, where they had zero visibility and icing conditions that caused the planes pitot tubes, which measure airspeed, to fail. The failure in the sensors caused the stall protection to fail and the pilot’s inputs were overcorrected. The pilots kept the angle of attack too high and placed too much trust in their instruments. From there, pilot inexperience and “the startle effect” left the pilots distracted, correcting the wrong issues. The plane descended in a fatal stall until it crashed.”
Elise continued,” The two pilots reacted very professionally — modern plane and crew experience would have brought them out safely. The third pilot manipulated the situation by inserting warning alarms into the system, so that the pilot’s attention was focused on constantly treating other problems and not noticing what was really going on.”
Sam shook his head. “How could you possibly have worked all that out?”
Elise shrugged. “I pay attention to detail.”
Tom said, “Hey, Sam and I have been pilots for a long time, and neither of us could work it out after spending the better half of a night staring at the damned thing. Come on, how did you work it out?”
Elise smiled. “I got a phone call from someone at the British Air Accidents and Crash Investigators.”
“And?”
“It turns out the QAR had an additional set of video cameras set up. One of them was set at the back of the cockpit where the third pilot used his laptop to access the BUS and hack into the primary flight display. The video recorded everything he did. It showed him guilty as hell. There’s no question about it — the third pilot brought the plane down, exactly where he wanted it.”
Sam grinned. “That answers that, but there’s one thing I don’t understand.”
Elise said, “Shoot.”
“Where did the island come from?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Elise put the additional video footage on.
They watched the third pilot sabotage the Dreamlifter. From a different angle Sam, Tom, and Elise could see everything — from the false instrument readings through to the sequence of false engine fires.
Sam felt a surge of heat up his neck and was surprised by his own anger. “That scumbag! If we ever find him, he’ll pay for this.”
Elise grabbed the iPad and pressed down on the screen. “There’s more.” A separate video feed showed the cargo area. Light flooded in as the forward hatch opened up, and ten men dressed in military gear flooded in. Two flashes came from the direction of the cockpit and in short order, two of the men dragged the pilot’s bodies into the cargo area.
The two men joined the others releasing the sphere, and assembling and inflating two large pontoons around the engine. In under a minute, the whole thing was set up. The tail door cracked open. As the camera adjusted to the new lighting conditions, a large sea barge moved toward the plane. A heavy tow line was attached to the sphere, which was rapidly floated out as the cargo hold filled with sea water.
Tom stared at the screen, baffled, “They were professionals. There was no way this was done without inside help.”
“Okay, so there’s the sphere being loaded onto the boat, before the aircraft sinks. I still don’t see what happened to the island.”
“Have a look behind.”
Sam squinted. His eyes went in and out of focus as his brain tried to comprehend what he was seeing.
There was a thick fog.
Elise asked, “What do you see?”
“There’s a thick fog of some sort.”
“Right. And what sort of day was it when the Dreamlifter made its watery landing?”
“It was stormy. I remember they were flying in a total whiteout because of the clouds.”
“Sure. But at what altitude?”
“You’re right. They broke through the cloud cover. On the ground, it was overcast, but the sea was a dark blue, nearly ultramarine in color, with sun rays flickering off its surface.”
“That’s right. That’s what you saw on the FDR,” Elise said, a slight grin forming on her lips. “What do you see here?”
“It’s heavily overcast, with a thick fog setting in.”
“Right. Only the fog isn’t just now setting in. It’s dissipating.”
Sam said, “I don’t understand.”
“What color water would you expect to see if overhead were covered by thick, impenetrable clouds?”
“Dark. The water would take on a grayish-black appearance and be nearly impossible to distinguish.” Sam grinned, curiously. “But I watched the FDR recording through the cockpit windshield, that water was beautiful. It was blue and crisp, and full of sunshine glistening off its surface.”