CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR ANNA
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
A NNA
Miguel keys his microphone. “New York Center, Pacific Air 7038. We are declaring an emergency. We’ve lost cabin pressure and are in an emergency descent to ten thousand feet.”
“Pacific Air 7038, New York Center. Roger, the Rockdale altimeter is two niner niner three.”
Anna pushes against the side stick with greater force. It doesn’t feel right. “Something’s wrong!” she repeats to Miguel. “I barely have pitch control.”
As the nose continues to pitch up and down, she’s lifted off her seat.
“Easy!” Miguel yells. He grasps his control stick. “I’ve got the airplane.” He grimaces. “I see what you mean,” he says after maneuvering his stick.
Anna points to the lower ECAM flight control screen. “Look, the left elevator isn’t moving, but the right one is. It must be jammed for some reason. That’s why the autopilot kicked off.” She sees the altitude is at 10,500 feet. “Approaching ten thousand,” she announces.
Miguel attempts to level the airplane, but dips below and then back up to ten thousand feet.
“This is going to make our approach interesting!” he says while struggling to keep the airplane level. “We’re at ten thousand feet. Oxygen masks can come off.”
Miguel struggles to maintain altitude. Anna notes the look of intense concentration on his face.
“Look,” Miguel says without taking his eyes off the instruments. “I know you are very capable of flying this approach, but given the emergency situation, I would feel better if I flew this one myself.”
Anna tries not to show the huge relief she feels on hearing this. “No problem. I think that’s a good plan. And I would feel better about it knowing you have a lot more experience than me.”
“Not with anything like this!” he exclaims.
The nose pitches up again in the turbulence. Miguel fights to bring the airplane back down to ten thousand feet.
“We should check on how they’re doing in the back. But first, tell Approach—”
The flight attendant call buzzer sounds through the cockpit.
Anna pulls off her mask and selects “ATT” on her interphone panel. “This is Anna!”
“Anna! It’s Aubrey.”
Anna presses her headphones tight against her ears with both hands, straining to hear the flight attendant on the other end through the background noise. Aubrey sounds muffled. It must be her oxygen mask.
“The passengers ... row fifteen ... hole in the lavatory. And jumped! Derek ... he fell. And—” Aubrey’s voice cracks.
“Can you repeat that?”
“The passengers in row fifteen sawed a hole in the lavatory wall and jumped out!”
“ What? How could anyone saw a hole in the side of the plane?”
Miguel shoots her a wary glance. He’s still wearing his mask. Anna’s not sure if he heard what she said over the flow of oxygen.
“We found a saw blade in the lavatory attached to what was made to look like an electric shaver. But that’s not all. Derek fell out while trying to help the mother of the baby get inside. He’s ... he’s gone.”
Anna’s stomach churns as she looks to Miguel with wide eyes. “Did the mother fall out too?”
“No. Just Derek.”
Anna moves to cover her mouth with her hand, but it hits her boom microphone instead.
“We’ve closed the lavatory door, and all other passengers are safe in their seats.”
Miguel toggles his transmit switch. “Make an announcement for passengers to prepare for an emergency landing. It’s going to be a very rough descent. We’ll make an announcement from the cockpit when we can. Also, we’ve reached a safe altitude, so oxygen masks can come off.”
“And Aubrey?” Anna asks before ending the call. “Did you find the baby inside the pet carrier?”
“No. It was empty. We still haven’t found him.”
Anna hangs up without another word. The probability of the baby being taken out of the hole in the plane with his kidnappers floats in her mind. She thinks back to their altitude when the cabin pressure alarmed. If they were at eighteen thousand feet when they started to cut the hole, they probably jumped around fifteen to sixteen thousand, given how rapidly they descended. Low enough to make the jump without oxygen.
If the kidnappers have parachutes—and survive the jump—they might actually get away with the baby. She envisions the infant, strapped to his abductor’s chest as they jumped from the plane. And the poor mother in the back who may never see her child again.
A bolt of lightning flashes, much closer than she’s ever seen from inside an aircraft, momentarily illuminating the rain pelting against the windshield. Turbulence continues to toss the plane about.
As Anna switches her intercom panel back to the number one radio, she thinks of Derek, free-falling to his death. It’s almost too horrific to imagine. She sees Miguel change the frequency before she can find the words to tell him.
He tosses his mask to the side. “New York Approach, Pacific Air 7038. We are declaring an emergency. We’ve had a decompression event, and one of our elevators is jammed. We have reduced pitch control, and we’ll need a long runway. Requesting a divert to JFK.”
“Pacific Air 7038, New York Approach. JFK is reporting a thunderstorm directly overhead with lightning strikes on the field. Aircraft are diverting to their alternates.”
“How about Newark?” Miguel asks.
“Newark’s wind is two eight zero at twenty-three gusts to thirty-five, and they are circling to land on runway 29.”
Miguel looks at the airport diagram for Newark and turns to Anna. “That runway is shorter than LaGuardia’s, and I hate that circling approach, so looks like LaGuardia is our best bet now. At this altitude, we don’t have the fuel to go anywhere else now.”
“I agree,” Anna says reluctantly, her mind still filled with the image of Derek falling from the plane.
“Miguel?”
He cocks his head to meet her gaze.
She debates whether to tell him about Derek. They need to focus. But he also needs to know. She gives him a short, horrific version of what happened in the main cabin.
Miguel’s eyes double in size. “Shit.”
“And the baby?” he asks.
“They haven’t found him.”
Miguel stares out the windscreen. “Dear God.” He closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. After a moment, he lowers his hand, exhaling. “Tell New York Approach that we’ll be requesting an approach to LaGuardia. With this wind, looks like runway 31 will be the best.”
“Okay.” She tries her best to erase from her mind the image of Derek—and the baby—falling out of the side of the plane. There are still forty souls on board, and right now, she has to focus. She keys her microphone but takes a steadying breath before she speaks.
When they discovered the elevator was jammed, she recognized the fear in Miguel’s eyes. Even with a fully functioning aircraft, it was going to be a tough landing in this storm. Without the left elevator to control the up and down pitch of the aircraft, it’s damn near impossible.
Her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a single chime and an amber FUEL L+R WING TK LO LVL warning that pops up on the lower ECAM screen, signaling their fuel supply is running dangerously low.
“Shit!” Miguel exclaims. “We’ve got to get this plane on the ground, now !”