Marine One

'You know the minimum altitude.' Marshall spoke to others we couldn't hear, then said, 'President's coming aboard.'

Collins sounded as if he had returned to the cockpit, and you could hear some background noise. Rudd exchanged comments on the weather and the instruments with Collins, then warned him that the president was coming into the cockpit. A chill came over the room as we heard President Adams's unmistakable voice: 'Shit, Colonel-it's blacker than a witch's heart out there! Can you get us out of here?'

There was a long, long pause while no one spoke.

Rudd filled in the gap: 'I believe so, sir. It isn't the best night for flying, though. Sure you wouldn't rather drive? You can borrow my car if you need one. Could be real bumpy, sir.'

The president laughed with a nervous, strained sound, then the voices faded. The cockpit was quiet.

Rudd's voice was loud: 'What the hell you doing, Chuck? You can't just ignore the president! He was talking directly to you!'

'I don't really give a shit what he was doing.'

'Don't let your politics get into this. They'll fire your ass. Show respect for the office if not for him.'

'I don't have any respect for the office while he's in it. You see his face? He looked like he's about to crack.'

'He always does. RPM?' Rudd replied as they talked about the president and completed their checklist at the same time.

'Not like this. One hundred percent.'

'Pretty close. Engine temps?'

'This is different. Engines are good.'

They finished the checklist and were ready to take off. Collins said on the ICS, 'Ready in the cabin, Sergeant Olson?'

'Ready, sir.'

You could hear the rotor blades bite into the air as they pulled the helicopter off the ground. Rudd called out their departure on the radio: 'Washington Control, Romeo Uniform One Zero One airborne, northwest departure.' They were using an innocuous call sign. If some sniper or missile shooter was waiting for them to take off, he wouldn't know by the call sign, different even from the one they had used during landing.

'Roger, One Zero One, climb and maintain thirty-five hundred feet. Take heading three two seven. Squawk three five six five and ident.'

'Roger. Passing two hundred for three point five. Squawking.'

'Radar contact. You're cleared direct destination.'

'Roger. Turning… Washington Center, Romeo One Zero One. You have any PIREPs on the tops for this storm?' A PIREP was a pilot report about the weather or conditions. It was highly regarded by other pilots. Real-time information, instead of some weatherman reading a scope or satellite picture.

'Stand by, One Zero One.'

But Collins couldn't wait. 'One Zero One requesting seven thousand feet. The turbulence is too severe here.'

'Roger, Zero One. You're cleared to seven thousand or anywhere in between at your discretion. Report when level. Latest PIREP shows tops at twenty-five thousand.'

'Roger. Leaving thirty-five hundred for seven thousand. Will report level. Thanks for the PIREP.'

'No problem, Zero One. Wish we had better news for you.'

Rudd laughed and said to Collins on the ICS, 'Maybe we should just stay at this altitude and see if we can get A3 to hurl.'

'Not a good idea. And knock off that A3 bit. He's not related to the other Adams presidents and you know it.'

'Come on, Chuck; you got to get off that. One guy in his line like a hundred years ago was illegitimate or adopted or something. Doesn't mean he isn't a descendant.'

'I'm surprised he doesn't claim to be the illegitimate son of Thomas Jefferson too. He's obviously comfortable with being a bastard.'

The room was in disbelief that Collins could have such hostility for the president and was discussing what a fraud he was while flying him through a thunderstorm.

'Get over it, man. Why do you overthink this stuff? It just doesn't matter.'

'I've looked into everything about him. I'm fascinated by him.'

'Fascinated. But not in a good way.'

They were talking over some radio conversation that would have to be separated out later by a technician. It was impossible for me to tell whether it was significant. The NTSB had the Air Traffic Control Center tapes too, so it wouldn't be hard to reconstruct what was said.

'You're just still dazzled by him. You'll get over it.'

'You're right about that. I'm absolutely not ready to hear whatever it is you're talking about. There's seven thousand feet.'

After a few minutes of silence, Collins said, 'Not much better here.'

'I think we're just stuck in this crap until Camp David. Thirty-seven miles. Look at the winds. They're westerly at thirty-five knots. If those are the winds at Camp David, we'll never get this thing on the ground.'

Collins didn't respond for a long period, then transmitted, 'Center, Romeo Uniform One Zero One. No better here. We're going to head down to twenty-five hundred to find some smoother air.'

'Roger, Zero One. Cleared. Take whatever altitude is best. No other traffic.'

A series of rapid, unidentifiable noises followed. Something was happening, but no one could tell what, at least not without analysis of the sounds. The next thing we heard was a strained Collins saying, 'We've hit severe turbulence.'

He was fighting something.

Rudd asked, 'You need any help?'

'No. I've got it.' Noises… struggle… grunting. 'Shit! This thing is out of control!'

'You got it?' Rudd screamed.

'No!' Collins yelled.

'What's going on?' the sergeant screamed from the back. 'The president's panicking!'

The violence increased. The engines suddenly seemed loud in the usually quiet background of cabin noise. I thought I heard the blades. They sounded strained, as if they were working against each other instead of creating a smooth-spinning disk to keep the helicopter off the ground.

'… out of control!' Collins said. 'Check… hydraulics!'

'No light. Pressure's good!' Rudd said in what sounded like a mighty attempt to sound calm.

The noise built to a crescendo. It sounded as if things were floating in the cockpit, hitting other things. I breathed harder just from listening. I tried to visualize what was happening, creating images that were surely only partly right. I didn't have enough information to complete the images, but my mind filled in the gaps.

'Pull up!' Rudd cried.

'I'm trying!' Collins yelled. 'Shit!'

'The vibration…' Rudd reported

There was no response. Grunting, pulling, noises, small collisions, and metal doing what it wasn't designed to do. Then silence.

6

AS SOON AS the NTSB finished playing the cockpit voice recorder, they played it again. The second time was even more riveting. As Collins's voice filled the room again, my mind jumped from one scenario to another as one small noise replaced another, each demanding immediate attention as the key to the puzzle.

I tried to listen to every single detail, but it was impossible. Too much was going on. I gave up taking good notes and just jotted down some of the things that were screaming at me. Ten things that might help explain what had happened. Some implicated my client, some the pilot, and some pointed to things outside the helicopter, which could be, as my law professor at American University used to say, either benign or malignant.

After the second playing, another NTSB technician entered the room with CDs for each of the party members of the investigation teams. The NTSB had loaded the data from the flight data recorder, the FDR, onto each disk. He gave them to Rose. Each CD box had the name of one of the principals on it. Rose looked down at the boxes, counted them mentally, then looked at the audience. 'I have here the flight data recorder information. We thought that the FDR was damaged, but it was just the external box. The hard drive was fine and we had no problem getting the data out of the recorder. Since I know you are just as capable as we are of utilizing the software necessary to read the FDR, we're going to provide each of you with a copy of the data. Please do not duplicate it except for internal purposes, and please do not release it outside of your investigation team.' She looked around the room. 'Do I need to remind you that releasing information to people outside the investigation is punishable?

'In this room, tomorrow morning, at the same time as we met today, we will have the computerized animation of the data from the flight data recorder so you can see exactly what happened to the helicopter; many of you will be doing the same thing yourselves and need not attend. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the crash site. Please come up here after we're done and each of you can take your copy of the FDR data. That's all for now.'

Those members of the teams that had been designated to pick up the FDR data made their way up front. Everyone else took the chance to discuss what they had just heard. Marcel approached me. He said quietly as Rachel joined us, 'Are you going back out to the site?'

'No, I have to go to that lunch, then to Justice.'

'Yes, of course, I had forgotten. You know who's coming to the lunch, don't you?'

'Yeah, David Tripp. He's the general counsel, right?'

'Yes, he is the general counsel, but he won't be the only one there.'

This was news to me. In the e-mail I had gotten confirming the luncheon appointment, it only mentioned Tripp and the president of WorldCopter U.S.

Marcel leaned in a little closer. 'No, as you might think, this has gotten the attention at the highest levels. They are very concerned about this accident and this investigation. The president of WorldCopter U.S. will be there, and the president of WorldCopter Europe.'