Airframe by Michael Crichton

a very good captain. Excellent captain. I like him very much."
    Protesting too much, Casey thought. The stewardess, previously calm, now appeared uneasy.
    Liang glanced at Casey, then looked away.
    "Did there appear to be any damage to the flight deck?" Casey asked.
    The stewardess frowned, thinking. "No," she said. "The flight deck appeared normal in every respect."
    "Did Captain Chang say anything else?"
    "Yes. He said they had an uncommanded slats deployment," she said. "He said that had caused the upset, and the situation was now under control."
    Uh-oh, Casey thought. This was not going to make the engineers happy. But Casey was troubled by the stewardess's technical phrasing. She thought it unlikely that a flight attendant would know about uncommanded slats deployment. But perhaps she was just repeating what the captain had said.
    "Did Captain Chang say why the slats deployed?"
    "He just said, uncommanded slats deployment."
    "I see," Casey said. "And do you know where the slats control is located?"
    Kay Liang nodded. "It is a lever in the center pillar, between the chairs."
    That was correct, Casey thought.
    "Did you notice the lever at that time? While you were in the cockpit?"
    "Yes. It was in the up and locked position."
    Again, Casey noted the terminology. A pilot would say, Up and locked. Would a flight attendant?
    "Did he say anything else?"
    "He was concerned about the autopilot. He said the autopilot kept trying to cut in, to take over the plane. He said 'I had to fight the autopilot for control.'"
    "I see. And what was Captain Chang's manner at this time?"
    "He was calm, as always. He is a very good captain."
    The girl's eyes flickered nervously. She twisted her hands in her lap. Casey decided to wait for a moment. It was an old interrogator's trick: let the subject break the silence.
    "Captain Chang comes from a distinguished family of pilots," Kay Liang said, swallowing. "His 34
    father was a pilot during the war, and his son is a pilot as well."
    "I see ..."
    The flight attendant lapsed into silence again. There was a pause. She looked down at her hands, then back up. "So. Is there anything else I can tell you?"
    Outside the cubicle, Richman said, "Isn't this the thing you said couldn't happen?
    Uncommanded slats deployment?"
    "I didn't say it couldn't happen. I said I didn't believe it was possible on this aircraft. And if it did, it raises more questions than it answers."
    "And what about the autopilot—"
    'Too early to tell," she said, and went into the next cubicle.
    "It must have been around six o'clock," Emily Jansen said, shaking her head. She was a slender woman of thirty, with a purple bruise on her cheek. An infant slept on her lap. Her husband lay in the bed behind her; a metal brace ran from his shoulders to his chin. She said his jaw was broken.
    "I had just fed the baby. I was talking to my husband. And then I heard a sound."
    "What sort of a sound?"
    "A rumbling or a grinding sound. I thought it came from the wing."
    Not good, Casey thought.
    "So I looked out the window. At the wing."
    "Did you see anything unusual?"
    "No. It all looked normal. I thought the sound might be coming from the engine, but the engine looked normal, too."
    "Where was the sun that morning?"
    "On my side. Shining in on my side."
    "So was there sunlight on the wing?"
    "Yes."
    "Reflecting back at you?"
    Emily Jansen shook her head. "I don't really remember."
    "Was the seat-belt sign on?'
    "No. Never."
    "Did the captain make an announcement?"
    "No."
    "Going back to this sound—you described it as a rumble?"
    "Something like that. I don't know if I heard it, or felt it. It was almost like a vibration."
    Like a vibration.
    "How long did this vibration last?"
    "Several seconds."

    35
    "Five seconds?"
    "Longer. I would say ten or twelve seconds."
    A classic description of a slats deployment in flight, Casey thought.
    "Okay," she said. "And then?"
    "The plane started going down." Jansen gestured with the flat of her hand.