McGill pushed his meal away and drank only coffee. Jake grinned, an expected repercussion from McGill’s excess the night before.
McGill stood. “I want to start this by apologizing for my lack of tactful behavior last night. The fact is we’re working a crash where someone I once knew was onboard. My past relationship has no bearing on how we do business or conduct this investigation. We have procedures and we’ll follow them. I’ll follow them. Any questions or comments before we move on?”
Jake wasn’t listening. He was troubled about the stranger in his room last night — the first time he’d ever had a gun pointed at him. The man put the gun away after Jake and Beth agreed to listen quietly.
Beth was angry at him for not calling security after the man left. But, if what the man said was true, Jake would need time to investigate the man’s allegations covertly.
Covertly and carefully.
Breakfast was cleared away. McGill unlocked and opened the conference room doors for the group members awaiting the seventhirty briefing.
During the briefing Jake relayed to the assembly that he had scheduled a call with Donna Greene, the NTSB investigator in Texas. She was to make an early morning visit to the FBO but because of the time zone difference, her briefing to Jake would be around or slightly before noon.
“I will be meeting today with a representative at the Gulfstream plant to check out the facility they’ve donated for the wreckage,” Jake said.
“The Air Traffic Control group should meet at the Savannah Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) by ten a.m. for data collection,” he added. “This group will review data logs and radio transcripts of the accident, then the hearing with the air traffic controller will follow around ten forty-five.”
Dave Morris gave a quick briefing and his group left for the accident scene.
Ben Lewis’ group sat at a table with a stack of manuals and specifications on the Challenger 604. After a quick overview of the material, Ben took his group to the accident scene.
Larry Kirkland made arrangements for delivery of information on the pilots’ logbooks, duty logs, and pilot certificates and ratings. The National Weather Service information was already on site and ready for review.
McGill excused himself to make a quick statement in the press briefing room as the investigation of the crash of N319CB got started.
Jake scanned the room, nearly empty. Kirkland was on the phone and Carol Martin was loading paper into a copy machine. He glanced at his watch, it was already after eight o’clock — he had to hurry. He was due at the Savannah air traffic control facility by nine o’clock but had business at the Gulfstream aircraft facility first.
As he walked to his car, he couldn’t shake the image of the silencer next to his head or the words that the strange man said.
CHAPTER 19
Early morning fog clung to the ground. Thicker near the river and marsh than inland. The forecast called for clearing skies by noon and then clear skies for the remainder of the week with high temperatures around seventy. He turned the black Mustang rental car into the main entrance at the Gulfstream Aircraft Corporation. He mused that Carol Martin had arranged for the Mustang knowing his affinity for sports cars, but knowing Carol, she paid the same rate as a standard vehicle. He was still distracted by the late night visitor but knew he must concentrate to push it out of his mind. At least for the next few hours.
The guard at the gate checked his credentials and issued him a pass, which he placed above the dashboard in the corner of the windshield. He gave Jake a small map of the Gulfstream complex, then showed him how to get to the empty hangar.
A Gulfstream representative met him at the hangar. “We haven’t used this hangar for quite a while and won’t need it for a few months, but the boss man wants me to find out how long the NTSB anticipates needing it.”
Jake replied, “I’m sure the IIC will release the wreckage back to the operator within a few weeks at the most.”
He and the representative discussed the security requirements and check-in procedures for NTSB personnel and vehicles.
Twenty minutes later he made the two-minute drive from Gulfstream to the Savannah air traffic control facility. He announced his arrival into the speaker at the gate.
The red brick building served as the administrative area and housed the TRACON and the air traffic control tower. The building was of newer construction and well maintained, unlike most of the other FAA Air Traffic Control facilities he had visited. He was accustomed to visiting FAA facilities in worn and dilapidated condition due to lack of proper maintenance and upkeep.
He walked toward the building and noticed a black Harley Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle parked in the lot with a fly rod case attached to a pack on the sissy bar. On the front of the motorcycle was a small tag with a fly fishing graphic in the center and the words “Bite Me” written beneath it. He wondered what type of fly-fishing there was in Savannah.
The Quality Assurance and Training Specialist, or QATS as the FAA calls it, greeted him at the front door and escorted him down the hallway to the conference room.
The ATC group was already seated at the conference table awaiting his arrival. Seated around the table were the National Air Traffic Controller’s Association’s Aviation Safety Inspector, a representative from the FAA Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service, the Savannah facility’s air traffic manager, and an FAA Airways Facility representative.
The air traffic manager informed Jake that the FAA attorney was interviewing the air traffic controller involved in another office prior to the hearing.
“I called yesterday and made a request for data extractions, statements, certified ATC recordings, certified transcripts, notes, outages, and the like — how are we doing on all that?” Jake asked.
The manager replied, “We have everything you asked for except the information from Jacksonville Center.” He was referring to the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center that overlies Savannah ATCT and TRACON airspace. “It will be this afternoon before that data is available. I had one of my staff specialists drive to Hilliard to pick it up.”
“How long will that take?” Jake asked.
“It’s a good two-and-a-half-hour drive each way so we better allow for approximately six hours.”
“That’s considerably longer than I wanted to wait for the data. Any way we can just get a courier to deliver it?”
“It’s too late for that now, he’s probably half way there.”
“I guess the Jacksonville Center data will have to wait until tomorrow, then.”
The QATS brought over a stack of data and explained to Jake and his group the details. The group read over the statements and the outage log, noting only one pertinent outage, the primary radar site. He gave a brief introduction to the group about Savannah TRACON and ATCT. “Savannah has an automated radar tracking system, the ARTS IIE, with both primary and secondary radar displayed on the air traffic controllers’ scopes. However, yesterday morning, the Savannah primary radar was taken down for four hours.”
Jake interrupted, directing his question to the Airways Facility technician. “Explain to me why the primary radar was taken out of service.”
“The primary radar was due for its PM’s, preventive maintenance, and a couple of days ago we got an alarm,” the technician replied. “We’ve had to do a couple of resets in the last few days, so we figured it was better to take it down yesterday for three or four hours than risk it failing today.”
“Why is that?” Jake asked.
The manager replied for the technician, “St. Patrick’s Day is a high traffic volume period for Savannah. It’s busier than most holidays. The aircraft start trickling in a couple of days before the holiday and then there’s a huge rush in the day before and out the day after St Patrick’s Day. As a matter of fact, with the low visibilities this morning, they’re up to their assholes in alligators right now — very busy. I don’t like to have any equipment outages during St. Patrick’s Day week.”