“What does that mean? Days ago? You don’t know where he is?” Marion asked. “Emily, he hasn’t contacted you?”
Calvin sat on the white couch, looking out at the waves. “That’s correct, Marion. He was flying an aircraft, was supposed to land during a set window that was previously coordinated, and they never showed.”
“Well, what did their flight plan say?” Chad asked.
Calvin sat stone cold.
“Let me guess, no flight plan.” Chad continued, reflecting on a lifetime of covert activity at DIA. Chad Stevens was a retired DIA officer, and was connecting the dots immediately.
Calvin did not answer.
“Well, why not track them on… radar of some kind? Their equipment that sends the signal, whatever that thing is called. Transponder. Whatever. That?” Marion said, asking questions to see what Calvin knew.
Calvin slowly nodded his head from left to right.
Chad rapidly went through scenarios based upon his career and combined Cal’s nonverbals with his knowledge of flying. “Cal, Ford was flying off the grid? Let me guess. You snatched a bird from someplace, and he was ferrying it for you and the agency?” Chad asked, figuring out what Cal was up to.
Emily wiped her nose with a tissue.
It really had not sunk in to his conscious mind yet that he was in this quandary. What Ford had, minus the latest setback with Wu, was mental toughness. Ford was always fascinated with the tests that life threw at people, some when people were young, and others old — times when life just wasn’t fair, but these people rebounded and learned from the adversity. Some caved in because life was hard or dealt them a bad hand of cards. Ford was compulsive at finding out the things that made people successful and modeled them. His readings led him to one thing: never quit. And he never did. Because quitting to Ford meant it was permanent, rather than some short-term pain. Ford wanted to be successful and would never quit, no matter what. Jojo Rising was the saying he and Wu used to describe maxing out on life, and he would need that special something today.
The top of the cockpit that was exposed to the sky was bright with sunlight, and it woke Ford up. Sleeping with his back on the pilot seat, but sitting in the snow, made the cold run thru his body like a live electrical wire. No matter what he tried, sleep was uncomfortable, cold, and wet, and he was not restful.
The light from the morning sky allowed him to see a bit better. He realized how lucky he was to be alive after seeing how the mountain tore up the aircraft, crushing it like a thin soda can.
Ford decided to climb back up to the top to look around again. He squinted at the intense sunlight coming from both the sky and the snow, and it reminded him of stories of snow blindness. Ford pulled down his tinted helmet visor, giving him the eye protection he needed.
The morning sun illuminated the surrounding area, and Ford was able to look around at the beautiful landscape. The snow and mountains were breathtaking, majestic, and intimidating, all at the same time. Ford scanned the horizon all around for a few minutes and saw no signs of life — no birds, no wildlife, no aircraft contrails. One side of the sky was gray toward the largest mountain peak, and seemed to look like a storm. He determined his cardinal directions, figuring out his bearing from the sun, then went back down into the cockpit.
Eating a granola bar and drinking some water he kept from freezing by keeping it close to his warm body, he sat wondering what to do next. Recalling his route of flight and his flight time, he knew he was in northern India, but the electronic aviation charts were not to scale to provide city or town locations and names. Certainly on a visual flight rules chart, or VFR, they were well labeled, but not on a digital instrument flight rules version.
Ford threw his wrapper off to the side and determined that there was no way he would be located if he sat there. His mind also wandered to Emily and his family, everything from his engagement to drinking. Get it together already.
“Pinky, I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’m going to have to leave you. I just don’t think anyone will find us sitting down here in this hole. I’ll die, too, and there is no way that is happening.”
Ford knew from Survival School that one of the most important things he could ever do at this moment is have the will to survive. The history books were full of stories of people who had the will to make it and live, and as a result of this mind-set, did so. Stories shared by the Survival School instructors were very popular regarding servicemen who were isolated during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and attributed their survival to the mental psychology game. The most important thing he could do was concentrate on living and being positive. The positive psychology research was overwhelming in Ford’s favor: be an optimist.
Certainly, there was no way that Ford could prepare ahead of time mentally to overcome this specific obstacle, but because he had strong mental toughness in his life prior to takeoff, his chances of living were above average. One of Ford’s favorite books was Man’s Search for Meaning by Dr. Viktor Frankel, which discussed surviving through World War II concentration camps. As a result of this book and his air force training, Ford knew that the body’s demands from food sources for energy can be reduced to nearly zero.
Because Ford also did not have the proper survival kit in the jet, he knew immediately it would a tough go in such environmental conditions. He questioned why he and the team did not prepare ahead of time, but this remote possibility never crossed anyone’s mind on an administrative flight. Ford was stranded, and he now wished he had some type of a survival manual with him. He also remembered that the top item on the list was not to panic. Fear was definitely in his mind and enhanced his senses, but he certainly did not panic.
Think, think. OK. Review SURVIVAL.
Ford had a surge of adrenaline still going, but he had to channel his emotions so that there was no energy wasted. He thought about Survival School and remembered the word survival as S-U-R-V–I-V-A-L, using it as a memory device.
The letter S meant that he was to size up the situation, considering any injuries and first aid. Ford reviewed what he had experienced to date, thinking about what he perceived as altitude sickness and a concussion. Other than that, he was healthy. He also checked again on his week’s or so worth of food and some limited water, but felt OK with the bountiful snow and ice available. The weather was definitely going to be an issue, and he had not even left his little survival cockpit shelter.
The U in survival was undue haste makes waste. Ford had no clue as to what else was out there and really wasn’t aware of what was at stake outside. He did not want to waste precious time and energy on things that were not important, so focusing on a route to hike out would be first. These are no foothills. Conserving energy to do it would also come into play, and luckily, he had not wasted any physical activity just yet, so that was good.
The R in survival was remember where you are, which an issue was already. He did have paper aviation charts somewhere in the cockpit as a backup to the digital maps on the screens, but they were not the right scale.
The V in survival meant vanquish fear and panic, which would always give him a solid attitude check. I’m good there so far.
The I in survival was improvise, which is something he would have to do. No climbing gear was the elephant in the room. Perhaps get down to a lower attitude sooner rather than later for oxygen. Catch food? I cannot imagine there are any animals living at this altitude.