"Well, do you have his number?" he asked. Of course I did. "You need to give him a call immediately" he barked at me. My very large coffee mug was still mostly full and I wasn't ready to be yelled at this morning. So, as is my nature, I became difficult.
"First off, he isn't my student anymore. Second, why is this so important. I highly doubt he's awake" I retorted in a lightly sarcastic tone. I intended for my comments to come off a very specific way. In essence, if it wasn't critical, I wasn't going to call and there isn't anything you can do.
"Well, he went out time-building last night with another student. The plane they took isn't on the ramp but the flight tracker (the one I have shown to you in my previous blogs) shows them arriving at almost 4 this morning." The dispatcher, normally lazily calm, looked nervous.
"Are you sure it's not out there?" I asked. This may sound like a stupid question but with almost 20 airplanes on the ramp, sometimes you think an airplane isn't there when in fact it is. He said that the instructor who was supposed to have the plane at 7:00 am walked up and down the ramp with no success. So, I immediately pulled out my cell phone.
A million bad thoughts started racing through my mind. I couldn't comprehend how the flight tracker showed them arriving yet they were nowhere to be found. Maybe they closed their flight plan on approach and decided to do some night sightseeing. If that was the case, what if they never made it back because they did something stupid and ended up in the ocean or in someone's back yard? What if they landed and decided to take the plane on a joy ride? I was the last person who gave him instruction and would be most definitely held responsible. That isn't even to mention the grief I would feel. I quickly found his number and dialed. The other line started to ring; a good sign. After two rings, the phone was answered. I could hear rustling as if the phone had been answered prematurely.
"Hello?" Abdulla clearly answered. So, he was alive. That's a good start.
"Hey, it's Chris. Where are.." I was cut off and with a beep the call ended. I quickly redialed and the call went straight to voice mail. I repeated this dance several times with no success. This time, a new panic started racing through my mind. A young man of Arabic descent went on a flight from Florida to South Carolina last night and the airplane was missing. Now, after what sounded like an inadvertent answering of his cell phone, he was refusing to take my calls. Shit. I knew these thoughts were irrational but I couldn't help but think them.
Finally Abdulla called back. I asked him very calmly where the missing airplane was. He groggily answered that it was in Daytona. He said in very broken English that they had engine troubles and were forced to divert.
Panic moments one and two were over. They were safely on the ground and the airplane was parked securely in Daytona. I went on my flight and when I got back, I got a whole new series of questions from the dispatcher. At 9:00, the story went like this:
- Somewhere north of Ormand Beach and south of St Augustine, the two had been cleared to descend from 8000 feet to 4000 feet.
- Upon arriving at 4000 feet, one of the students (still not sure who was flying and who was on the radios yet) added power and the airplane immediately began to sputter and shake.
- Air Traffic Control eventually led them to safe and successful diversion to Daytona Beach International.
So, now people started asking more probing questions. Maintenance was in for the day and so was most of the administrative office staff. The initial conclusion from the Monday morning quarterbacks (and in this case Friday morning) was that they were dummies and ran out of gas. The Cessna is only capable of a little over 6 hours of fuel. After looking at the track up to Charleston, SC, the flight appeared to have taken a little over 3 hours. If they didn't get gas (a gross error on the students' part) they wouldn't have enough gas for the return trip. That isn't even to mention that they were obviously were in violation of the regulations governing instrument flight.
Then people started the rumor that the students had declared an emergency. Declaring an emergency would not have been a good thing for the students (and probably me either) had the FAA requested a report on why an emergency was declared. If it was discovered that they had ran out of fuel, we would have most likely been visited by the friendly FAA looking to turn over stones and whatnot. So I called Abdulla but couldn't get a hold of him again. It was then that I realized that many major Air Traffic Control centers have live streaming feeds online and some of the larger ones are archived. So, my next hunt began. Within 30 minutes, my friend and I had found the audio.
Abdulla had originally claimed that the engine was running rough and that some cylinder temperatures stopped registering. Clearly, something was going very wrong for the two young pilots. My friend and I queued up the audio on my iPad and pushed play.
Abdulla: Daytona Approach. We are having some problems with our engine. We would like to divert to Ormand.
ATC: Roger. You are cleared to the Ormand Beach airport via radar vectors. Ormand Beach is at your 3 o'clock and 4 miles. Advise the airport in sight. Could you repeat was is wrong?
Abdulla: (in broken english) Our engine, it is having problem. The 1 and 3 piston is broke. We need to divert.
ATC: Do you think you can make it to Daytona? It's at your 10-12 o'clock and 8 miles.
*Some people think Daytona was preparing for a potential crash landing. Ormand was closed but Daytona has round-the-clock emergency services
Abdulla: We make it to Daytona.
*At this point, after spending quite a bit of time with the young man, I could hear the nervousness in his voice. His responses were very tense and almost a little shaky. From what Abdulla had told me on the phone, the engine was sputtering and shaking pretty hard.
ATC: Roger, Turn left to 180. The airport will be at 12 o'clock and 6 miles. Report the airport in sight.
Abdulla: (labored pause) Ok, we will advise you when we see the airport.
*Less than a minute passed. Still no response.
ATC: Sir, I can see you from the tower. You are still at 4000 feet and need to descend. Daytona is now at your 12 and 4 miles. Can you see the runway?
Abdulla: Can you turn on some sort of beacon?
*A slight panic could be heard in his voice. He was looking for the airport but couldn't see anything. His engine was shaking the entire airplane and he had to be getting desperate. I'm sure he knew there was no such beacon (at least I hope he knew) that tower could turn on but he had to ask. I'm sure he was hoping the tower had fireworks. At 4 miles and 4000 feet in the air, the airport was almost right below his nose. He wasn't used to being this close and so high. Odds are, he was looking at between 10-12 miles in the distance for the runway. It wasn't there.
ATC: (a slight chuckle was barely audible) Sir, we are turning up the lights as bright as they go right now. You are still high and need to descend.
Abdulla: (almost yelling) I SEE THE AIRPORT!
ATC: Ok, you are cleared to land on runway 16.
At this point, we still weren't sure what the problem was but we knew for certain that he had not declared an emergency or requested priority nor had he said anything about having low fuel. All of the above were positive signs.
Within the next few hours, several facts came to light. Abdulla returned with a fuel receipt from Charleston. They had, in fact, stopped for gas. I wanted to be happy for them but knew I shouldn't be happy they did something that they would have otherwise been reckless not to do. Also, an instructor went up to Daytona before coming into work to try and see if there was really a problem. When he called back, he reported that there was plenty of gas and that when the engine started, it was shaking pretty bad. He wasn't even going to try to attempt to fly it the 10 miles back to New Smyrna.
So, the students had done the right thing. It made me proud to know that my student, who many people often regarded as a screw-up or unmotivated or spoiled, came through in a crisis situation, at least in their limited experience. Later in the afternoon, Abdulla came in to fill out a safety form. I asked him to detail exactly what happened. It turned out that Abdulla was, in fact, the flying pilot. I asked him why it was him on the radio instead of the other pilot. He said, "when the piston it fail, I take over." While it would have benefited him to have someone to split the workload, he was able to focus on the task at hand and landed the airplane safely. He will make a very good pilot someday and it makes me proud to know that I was one of his instructors who helped him get there.
***************
As Abdulla rolled off the runway after landing at a little before 4:00 am, he called up ground control to request taxi to parking.
ATC: Taxi straight ahead to parking. SheltAir is right there at your 11 o'clock.
Abdulla keyed the mic and let out a long breath as he repeated the instructions. The words seemed to just fall out of his mouth as exhaled a long and exaggerated sigh of relief. They were on the ground safe. It was over.
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