The Lion's Game

CHAPTER 4

Ed Stavros, the Kennedy International Airport Control Tower Supervisor, held the phone to his ear and listened to Bob Esching, the New York Center Air Traffic Control Shift Supervisor. Stavros wasn't sure if Esching was concerned or not concerned, but just the fact that Esching was calling was a little out of the ordinary.

Stavros' eyes unconsciously moved toward the huge tinted windows of the control tower, and he watched a big Lufthansa A-340 coming in. He realized that Esching's voice had stopped. Stavros tried to think of something to say that would sound right when and if the tape was ever played back to a roomful of grim-looking Monday morning quarterbacks. Stavros cleared his throat and asked, "Have you called Trans-Continental?"

Esching replied, "That's my next call."

"Okay… good… I'll alert the Port Authority Police Emergency Service unit… was that a 700 series?"

"Right," said Esching.

Stavros nodded to himself. The Emergency Service guys theoretically had every known type of aircraft committed to memory in regard to doorways, escape hatches, general seating plans, and so forth. "Good… okay…"

Esching added, "I'm not declaring an emergency. I'm just-"

"Yeah, I understand. But we'll go by the book here, and I'll call it in as a three-two condition. You know? That's potential trouble. Okay?"

"Yeah… I mean, it could be…"

"What?"

"Well, I'm not going to speculate, Mr. Stavros."

"I'm not asking you to speculate, Mr. Esching. Should I make it a three-three?"

"That's your call. Not mine." He added, "We have a NO-RAD for over two hours and no other indication of a problem. You should have this guy on your screen in a minute or two. Watch him closely."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"That's it," said Bob Esching.

"Thanks," said Ed Stavros and hung up.

Stavros picked up his black direct-line phone to Port Authority Communications Center, and after three rings, a voice said, "Guns and Hoses at your service."

Stavros did not appreciate the humor of the Port Authority police officers who doubled as firemen and Emergency Service personnel. Stavros said, "I have an incoming NO-RAD. Trans-Continental Flight One-Seven-Five, Boeing 747, 700 series."

"Roger, Tower. Which runway?"

"We're still using Four-Right, but how do I know what he'll use if we can't talk to him?"

"Good point. What's his ETA?"

"Scheduled arrival time is sixteen-twenty-three."

"Roger. Do you want a three-two or a three-three?"

"Well… let's start with a standard three-two, and we can upgrade or downgrade as the situation develops."

"Or we can stay the same."

Stavros definitely did not like the cocky attitude of these guys-and they were mostly all guys, even the women. Whoever had the bright idea of taking three macho occupations-Emergency Service, firemen, and cops-and rolling them all into one, must have been crazy. Stavros said, "Who is this? Bruce Willis?"

"Sergeant Tintle, at your service. To whom am I speaking?"

"Mr. Stavros."

"Well, Mr. Stavros, come on down to the firehouse, and we'll put you in a nice fireproof suit and give you a crash ax, and if the plane blows, you can be among the first to get on board."

Stavros replied, "The subject aircraft is a NO-RAD, not a mechanical, Sergeant. Don't get overly excited."

"I love it when you get angry."

Stavros said to Tintle, "Okay, let's get this on the record. I'm going to the Red Phone." Stavros hung up and picked up the Red Phone and hit a button, which again connected him to Sergeant Tintle, who this time answered, "Port Authority-Emergency Service." This call was official and every word was recorded, so Stavros stuck to procedure and said, "This is Tower Control. I'm calling in a three-two on a Trans-Continental 747-700, landing Runway Four-Right, ETA approximately twenty minutes. Winds are zero-three-zero at ten knots. Three hundred ten souls on board." Stavros always wondered why the passengers and crew were called souls. It sounded as though they were dead.

Sergeant Tintle repeated the call and added, "I'll dispatch the units."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

"Thank you for calling, sir. We appreciate the business."

Stavros hung up and rubbed his temples. "Idiots."

He stood and looked around the huge Tower Control room. A few intense men and women sat staring at their screens, or talking into their headsets, or now and then glancing out the windows. Tower Control was not as stressful a job as that of the actual air traffic controllers sitting in a win-dowless radar room below him, but this was a close second. He remembered the time two of his men had caused the collision of two airliners on the runway. It had been his day off, which was why he was still employed.

Stavros walked toward the big window. From his height of over three hundred feet-the equivalent of a thirty-story building-the panoramic view of the entire airport, bay, and Atlantic Ocean was spectacular, especially with clear skies and the late afternoon sun behind him. He looked at his watch and saw it was almost 4:00 P.M. He would have been out of here in a few minutes, but that was not to be.

He was supposed to be home for dinner with his wife at seven, with another couple. He felt fairly confident that he could make it, or at least be no more than fashionably late. Even later would be okay when he arrived armed with a good story about what had delayed him. People thought he had a glamorous job, and he played it up when he'd had a few cocktails.

He made a mental note to call home after the Trans-Continental landed. Then he'd have to speak to the aircraft's captain on the phone, then write a preliminary report of the incident. Assuming this was nothing more than a communications failure, he should be on the road by six, with two hours of overtime pay. Right.

He replayed the conversation with Esching in his mind. He wished he had a way to access the tape that recorded his every word, but the FAA wasn't stupid enough to allow that.

Again, he thought about Esching's phone call-not the words, but the tone. Esching was clearly concerned and he couldn't hide it. Yet, a two-hour NO-RAD was not inherently dangerous, just unusual. Stavros speculated for a moment that Trans-Continental Flight 175 could have experienced a fire on board. That was more than enough reason to change the alert from a standard 3-2 status to a 3-3. A 3-4 was an imminent or actual crash, and that was an easy call. This unknown situation was a tough call.

And, of course, there was the remote chance that a hijacking was in progress. But Esching had said that there was no hijacking transponder code being sent.

Stavros played with his two options-3-2 or 3-3? A 3-3 would definitely call for more creative writing in his report if it turned out to be nothing. He decided to leave it a 3-2 and headed toward the coffee bar.

"Chief."

Stavros looked over at one of his tower controllers, Roberto Hernandez. "What?"

Hernandez put down his headset and said to his boss, "Chief, I just got a call from the radar controller about a Trans-Continental NO-RAD."

Stavros put down his coffee. "And?"

"Well, the NO-RAD began his descent earlier than he was supposed to, and he nearly ran into a US Airways flight bound for Philly."

"Jeez…" Stavros' eyes went to the window again. He couldn't understand how the Trans-Continental pilot could have missed seeing another aircraft on a bright, cloudless day. If nothing else, the collision warning equipment would have sounded even before visual contact was made. This was the first indication that something could be really wrong. What the hell is going on here?

Hernandez looked at his radar screen and said, "I've got him, Chief."

Stavros made his way to Hernandez's console. He stared at the radar blip. The problem aircraft was tracking unmistakably down the instrument landing course for one of Kennedy's northeast runways.

Stavros remembered the days when being inside an airport Control Tower meant you'd usually be looking out the window; now, the Control Tower people mostly looked at the same electronic displays that the air traffic controllers saw in the dark radar room below them. But at least up here they had the option of glancing outside if they wanted to.

Stavros took Hernandez's high-powered binoculars and moved to the south-facing plate glass window. There were four stand-up communications consoles mounted ninety degrees apart in front of the wraparound glass so that tower personnel could have multiple communications available while standing and visually seeing what was happening on the runways, taxiways, gates, and flight approaches. This was not usually necessary, but Stavros felt a need to be at the helm, so to speak, when the airliner came into view. He called out to Hernandez, "Speed?"

"Two hundred knots," Hernandez answered. "Descending through fifty-eight hundred feet."

"Okay."

Stavros picked up the Red Phone again. He also hit the Control Tower emergency speaker, then transmitted, "Emergency Service, this is Tower, over."

A voice came over the speaker into the silent Tower Control room, "Tower, Emergency Service."

Stavros recognized Tintle's voice.

Tintle asked, "What's up?"

"What's up is the status. It's now a three-three."

There was a silence, then Tintle asked, "Based on what?"

Stavros thought that Tintle sounded less cocky. Stavros replied, "Based on a near-miss with another aircraft."

"Damn." Silence, then, "What do you think the problem is?"

"No idea."

"Hijacking?"

"A hijacking doesn't make the pilot fly with his head up his ass."

"Yeah… well-"

"We have no time to speculate. The subject aircraft is on a fifteen-mile final for Runway Four-Right. Copy?"

"Fifteen-mile final for Runway Four-Right."

"Affirmed," Stavros said.

"I'll call out the rest of the unit for a three-three."

"Right."

"Confirm aircraft type," Tintle said.

"Still a 747, 700 series, as far as I know. I'll call you when we have visual."

"Roger that."

Stavros signed off and raised his binoculars. He began to scan from the end of the runway and methodically out from there, but his thoughts were on the radio exchange he just had. He recalled meeting Tintle a few times at the Emergency Committee liaison meetings. He didn't particularly like Tintle's style, but he had the feeling that the guy was competent. As for the cowboys who called themselves Guns and Hoses, they mostly sat around the firehouse playing cards, watching TV, or talking about women. They also cleaned their trucks a lot-they loved shiny trucks.

But Stavros had seen them in action a few times, and he was fairly sure they could handle anything from a crash to an onboard fire and even a hijacking. In any case, he wasn't responsible for them or the situation after the aircraft came to a halt. He took a little pleasure out of the knowledge that this 3-3 scramble would come out of the Port Authority budget and not the FM budget.

Stavros lowered the binoculars, rubbed his eyes, then raised the binoculars and focused on Runway Four-Right.

Both rescue units had rolled, and Stavros saw an impressive assortment of Emergency Service vehicles along the perimeter of the runway, their red beacons rotating and flashing. They were spaced far apart, a procedure designed to avoid having a monster aircraft like a 747 wiping them all out in a crash landing.

Stavros counted two RIVs-Rapid Intercept Vehicles-and four big T2900 fire trucks. There was also one Heavy Rescue ESU truck, two ambulances, and six Port Authority police cars, plus the Mobile Command Post, which had every radio frequency of every affiliated agency in New York as well as a complete phone center. He also spotted the Hazmat-the Hazardous Material Truck-whose crew had been trained by the United States Army. Parked in the far distance was the mobile staircase truck, and the mobile hospital. The only thing missing was the mobile morgue. That wouldn't roll unless it was needed, and there was no rush if it was.

Ed Stavros contemplated the scene-a scene he had created simply by picking up his red telephone. One part of him didn't want there to be a problem with the approaching aircraft. Another part of him… he hadn't called a 3-3 in two years, and he became concerned that he'd overreacted. But overreacting was better than underreacting.

"Seven miles," Hernandez called out.

"Okay." Stavros began another patterned search of the horizon where the Atlantic Ocean met the New York haze.

"Six miles."

"I got him." Even with the powerful binoculars, the 747 was hardly more than a glint against the blue sky. But with every passing second, the airliner was growing in size.

"Five miles."

Stavros continued to stare at the incoming aircraft. He'd watched, thousands of jumbo jets make this approach, and there was absolutely nothing about this particular approach that troubled him, except for the fact that even now the aircraft's radios were eerily silent.

"Four."

Stavros decided to talk directly to the person in charge of the rescue teams. He picked up a radiophone that was preset to the Ground Control frequency and transmitted, "Rescue One, this is Tower."

A voice came back on the speaker. "Tower, this is Rescue One. How may I help you today?"

Oh, God, Stavros said to himself, another wise-ass. It must be the qualification for the job. Stavros said, "This is Mr. Stavros, Tower Supervisor. Who is this?"

"This is Sergeant Andy McGill, first guitar, Guns and Hoses. What can I play for you?"

Stavros decided that what he didn't want to play was this idiot's game. Stavros said, "I want to establish direct contact with you."

"Established."

"Okay… subject aircraft is in sight, McGill."

"Right. We see him, too."

Stavros added, "He's on track."

"Good. I hate it when they land on top of us."

"But be prepared."

"Still NO-RAD?"

"That's right."

"Two miles," said Hernandez and added, "Still on track. Altitude eight hundred feet.

Stavros relayed this to McGill, who acknowledged.

"One mile," said Hernandez, "on track, five hundred feet."

Stavros could clearly make out the huge jetliner now. He transmitted to McGill, "Confirm a 747-700. Gear down, flaps seem normal."

"Roger that. I got a fix on him," McGill replied.

"Good. You're on your own." Stavros ended his transmission and put the radiophone down.

Hernandez left his console and stood beside Stavros. A few other men and women with no immediate duties also lined up at the windows.

Stavros watched the 747, mesmerized by the huge aircraft that had just passed over the threshold of the runway and was floating down toward the concrete. There was nothing about this aircraft that looked or acted any differently from any other 747 touching down. But suddenly, Ed Stavros was certain that he wouldn't be home in time for dinner.