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Eve slowed her steps, her eyes riveted to the screen.
The anchor seemed exhilarated.“A shocking sight in the sky over Las Vegas. Trouble on a LarsAir passenger flight minutes after takeoff.”
Eve froze.
The anchor continued, eyeing a monitor on her desk.“The airline says the Gulfstream was on its way to Los Angeles and was forced to return to Las Vegas Airport. It hasn’t landed but has been circling for over two hours. Here to shed some light on what could be going on up there is Jonathan Summers, an aviation expert. Jonathan?”
The gray-haired man nodded, his face somber.“Andrea, from what I can tell, the plane may have been struck by something and suffered some sort of structural damage.”
Andrea’s brows lifted.“Why the circling? If you’re flying that plane, you want to get it back on the ground as quickly as possible, right?”
“That is correct. But the pilot needs to burn off fuel, so it will be a while before he can attempt to put it down.”
“Why burn off the fuel?”
“Because this will be a crash landing that could be catastrophic. In case of a rollover, he needs to have the least combustible in those tanks. He doesn’t want it to become a fireball on impact.”
Heart in her throat, Eve stared at the screen, trying to make out the numbers on the tail.
It couldn’t be the G550.
It couldn’t be Adam up there, could it? Had he returned?
Andrea touched her earbud.“This just in. We have exclusive ATC audio provided by AirWatchers. Let’s listen to the pilot declaring the emergency.”
Please don’t let it be him.
Eve held her breath.
“Departure, Lars 63 is declaring an emergency. We believe something hit us. We cannot maintain heading.”
Ted’s unmistakable accent. Her shoulders sagged with relief. Her knees wobbled, and she leaned against a table because all the chairswere already taken with eager viewers who, to her disgust, were enjoying this.
The chatter in the break room grew louder.
“Quiet, guys,” someone said.“I can’t hear what she’s saying.”
“It’s coming around again. The airport has been shut down until his plane can land. They think it will be soon. He has been circling for a little over two hours. And here it comes!”
The camera zoomed in, the tail number came into clear view, and Eve felt a sheet of ice slide over her.
N576LA.
The G550.
ThatG550.
But she had heard Ted’s voice, not Adam’s.
Adam was away. He couldn’t be up there.
The cameras switched to a closeup of Andrea.“We have attempted to contact the CEO of LarsAir for comment but were informed that he is the one piloting the plane.”
No.
No, no.
“We are attempting to locate someone else at the company to come on with us and comment.”