Nightwatch

Chapter 56

Both Coach and Lucky found themselves pinned to their seats, unable to pull Nightwatch out of its uncontrolled descent. They were falling now at over fifteen thousand feet per minute, with the airframe and wings subject to five times the force of gravity, more than twice the aircraft’s original design limit. The E-4B had already lost large portions of its horizontal stabilizer, along with sections of the outboard elevator and all of its HP antennas, and had even had the auxiliary power unit sucked out of the wildly vibrating tail.

The terror took on an added dimension when Nightwatch actually flipped onto its back, rolled over, and began a horrifying, disorientating spiral dive. It was all Coach could do to catch sight of the rapidly dropping altimeter, and as they passed the eleven thousand-foot mark, he realized they would plunge into the Atlantic in less than forty seconds.

The plane shuddered violently, and he breathlessly listened as yet another alarm began chiming, followed by the panic-filled voice of Lucky.

“The landing-gear latches have failed, and I show that all four bogeys have deployed!”

Nightwatch had four separate landing-gear bogeys, one on each wing and a pair on the main body. Each of these massive structures had four wheels apiece, and hoping that their activation would provide some additional stability. Coach summoned his last ounce of strength to yank back on his steering yoke. He could hardly believe it when this frantic effort actually managed to pull up the plane’s nose slightly, and with the additional assistance of Lucky, they broke out of the dive and achieved level flight, less than two thousand feet above the pitch-black ocean.

There were no shouts of celebration as they nursed Nightwatch back into the heavens. The airplane was handling sluggishly, and with alarms still continuing to chime in the background, Coach dared to ask Jake for a preliminary damage-control report.

“We’re losing hydraulic systems one, three, and four,” he somberly reported.

“I’m going to try to switch off the air-driven pumps, and depressurize the engine-driven system.”

Hydraulic pressure was the big jet’s lifeblood, and when the system continued to lose pressure, Jake solemnly added, “Coach, I’m permanently shutting down hydraulic systems one, three, and four, leaving only two operational.”

“Without one and four available, how are we going to raise the trailing edge flaps?” asked Lucky.

“We can raise them using the secondary electrical system,” offered Owen Lassiter, who remained tightly buckled in behind the navigator’s console.

“And the landing gear, gents?” Lucky continued.

“Speaking of the landing bogeys,” said Jake, scanning the flashing lights of his console, “I hate to be the bearer of additional bad news, but I’m afraid that the two body gears have been ripped off their hinges.”

Coach turned his head and addressed Jake directly.

“We certainly don’t need any additional bad news, Lasky, and I hope that’s the end of it.”

“Actually, sir, it’s not,” said Jake with an uneasy grimace.

“We’ve also lost our primary and secondary braking systems. But at least we’re still in the air.”

“I’m very grateful for that fact. Lieutenant,” replied Coach before briefly scanning the faces of the flight deck’s other occupants.

“And now I have only a single question for each one of you. Where in the world can we possibly land this big lady with half of our landing gear ripped off, a minimum of hydraulic power, severely damaged flying controls, no primary or secondary braking systems, and a crazed group of maniacs in the back who want nothing less than to kill us and overthrow our elected government?”