Ysidro then pulled up a chair and sat right beside Lake, staring at him and taking in every last word as Lake pulled out his cellular telephone and Apple Newton PDA and made the first calls and satellite E-mail messages, first to his office to verify the receipt of the loan money, then to Leonardo Fraga, the vice president and general manager of the Win Millions Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. Under Ysidro’s murderous stare, it was hard to keep his fingers from shaking as he began the first few steps of Operation Storming Heaven.
Beale Air Force Base, Yuba City, California
Two Days Later
“The board has reached an initial evaluation,” Colonel Emerson Starr began. He was the operations group commander from McClellan Air Force Base appointed as the chief of the accident investigation board dealing with the crash of the F-16 at McClellan two days earlier. “The scope of the accident investigation has been greatly reduced because of the involvement of the FBI, Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms — in essence, this board can’t come up with a ruling on the cause of the crash because we haven’t been granted access to the data now in the hands of the FBI. We know there was an explosion, and we know the F-16 was in close proximity to the explosion, but we don’t know anything about the explosion itself. Therefore we can’t absolutely conclude that the explosion caused the damage on the F-16. However, based on radio transmissions, ground observers, and a cursory examination of the wreckage, the board determines that the probable cause of the accident was due to the F-16’s uncontrolled collision with the ground following sustaining engine and hydraulic damage due to proximity of a large ground explosion at Mather Jetport.”
Starr shifted uncomfortably in his seat and continued. “The preliminary report of this accident board in the matter of the death of the pilot Major Linda McKenzie is incomplete; however, we are prepared to issue the following statement to Air Combat Command, the chief of staff of the Air Force, and the adjutant general of the state of California: the death of Major McKenzie was due to violation of Air Combat Command regulation 55–16, ‘F-16 Aircrew Procedures,’ paragraph 5-53, and Technical Order 1F-16A- 1, section three, paragraph—”
“That’s bullshit!” Colonel Al Vincenti snapped, jumping to his feet. “Don’t pull this crap, Colonel. This was not a pilot error accident, damn you.”
“Sit down, Colonel Vincenti,” Starr said firmly.
“I want to address the board, sir.”
“The board has already heard your testimony, Colonel,” Starr replied. “Sit down or I’ll have you removed.”
“You can try, Starr.”
Colonel Gaspar was now on his feet in front of Vincenti. “Better sit down, Rattler,” he said. “You’re skating on real thin ice.”
“I assure you, Colonel, I have full authority to hold you in contempt if you don’t shut up,” Starr said. “Now, are you going to be quiet and let me finish, or will I have to ask you to leave?”
Vincenti riveted Starr with his angry stare.
“Colonel Gaspar, can you please escort Colonel Vincenti outside?”
“He’ll be fine, Colonel,” Gaspar said, pulling Vincenti back into his seat.
“Thank you, sir,” Starr said. “As I was saying, Major McKenzie violated several aircrew regulations that specifically directed her to eject if she was below two thousand feet above ground level in case of hydraulic failure, catastrophic engine failure, uncontrollability, low airspeed, inability to maintain altitude, unsafe gear indications, flight control transients or failure, inability to fly an approach pattern, electrical failure, center of gravity problems — the list goes on. By every account, and by the testimony of her fellow pilots and technical representatives of the aircraft manufacturer, Major McKenzie should have ejected much sooner and should not have attempted a landing.
“However, the board doubts whether Major McKenzie had full knowledge of exactly what was wrong with her aircraft, since it was dark and she had minimal cockpit indications,” Starr continued. “Colonel Vincenti on her wing also could not know the exact condition of her aircraft. The board concludes that it was reasonable for Major McKenzie to attempt a flameout landing with the indications she had. Considering the densely populated areas where the unmanned F-16 would have landed had she ejected, the board also finds that Major McKenzie’s and Colonel Vincenti’s actions in bringing the damaged aircraft to McClellan Air Force Base saved dozens and perhaps hundreds of lives.
“The board is therefore concluding that the actions of Major McKenzie and Colonel Vincenti were in keeping with the directives and tenets of the United States Air Force regarding safe operation over populated areas, and we conclude that Major Linda McKenzie did indeed risk and eventually sacrifice her own life to save others; although she would have been following prescribed directives by ejecting, and she is indeed guilty of not following those regulations which would have saved her life, failing to do so saved many other lives and much property damage, and Major McKenzie should be commended for her actions.”
Colonel Starr then looked over at Vincenti, affixing him with his own angry glare, and added, “The board further finds that damage sustained to Colonel Vincenti’s F-16 could have caused the malfunctions in the radios and videotape gun camera being questioned by the Air Combat Command flight evaluation board. Of course, these conclusions are preliminary, since we do not have access to information about the explosion, but it is reasonable for this board to conclude that Colonel Vincenti’s aircraft sustained much the same damage as Major McKenzie’s plane, and the malfunctions that Colonel Vincenti said were the cause of him disregarding instructions to land could have existed. Given that Colonel Vincenti’s last acknowledged instructions were to pursue the suspect aircraft, in our opinion his actions were consistent with his orders as he could have known them at the time. These preliminary findings will be passed along to the flight evaluation board convened to examine Colonel Vincenti’s actions subsequent to the crash at McClellan.
“I remind everyone present that the findings of this board are classified confidential, and you are instructed not to reveal any of them or discuss this matter with the press, which I understand is waiting outside. If you are questioned by the press, refer them to Air Force Public Affairs. Until such time as this board is allowed access to data about the explosion at Mather, this board stands in recess.”
Everyone in the room rose and departed — everyone except Vincenti and Gaspar, who returned to their seats after the board members had departed. Vincenti, weary and haggard, looked as if he had just been beat up. “Your mouth is going to get you in big trouble one of these days, my friend,” Gaspar said to his second-in-command. “You need to make friends with guys like Starr, not shout him down.” “I thought he was going to continue the press’s and the government’s feeding frenzy and trash Linda, like they’ve been trashing me and the unit,” Vincenti said. “I’m getting tired of this shit, Chuck. I feel so fucking isolated, like it’s our fault about San Francisco.”
“Since when do you care what anyone else thinks, Rattler?”
“Since I see and hear this stuff ten times a day in the papers, on the radio and TV,” Vincenti said. “Everywhere I go, I hear the same thing: I’m the guy that missed Cazaux, I’m the guy who let Cazaux go, I’m the one that screwed up. I’m starting to believe all this shit.”
“It’s all going to continue, Colonel,” a voice behind them said. They turned and found Admiral Ian Hardcastle standing in the center aisle listening to them, with his aide guarding the door to the room to keep anyone else out. “The government needs a fall guy, and you’re it. McKenzie’s name will be cleared — yours won’t. In fact, with Major McKenzie’s name cleared, you’ll appear doubly at fault.” “You know what I think, Hardcastle? I think you’re whipping the press up with all this talk of beefing up air defense,” Vincenti said angrily, getting to his feet to confront the retired officer. “I’ve seen disasters like this die away after a day or two, but you’re not letting this one die away. Where the hell do you get off?”