Jack didn't think Reid's observation about the vomit was particularly noteworthy. People get carsick, airsick—it's normal for passengers to vomit if the plane was unstable before the crash. However, Reid's comment piqued the interest of Lilo Box, the NTSB official. He leaned in to closely examine the carpet and nodded in agreement.
"That's an interesting discovery. I noticed a similar vomit stain in the rear fuselage section earlier. I thought it was an isolated case, but it seems the plane may have experienced an unusual vertical turbulence. I'll include this theory in my report."
Seeing Jack's confusion, Reid began gesturing to explain.
"Vertical turbulence—it's like riding a roller coaster, where you keep going up and down."
Jack waved his hands in frustration. He wasn't an idiot—he understood the term.
"I get what it means. What I'm asking is, isn't turbulence normal in a situation like this, when the plane encounters bad conditions?"
"So, do you throw up on roller coasters?" Reid asked, giving Jack a look that made him feel like a muggle, which was deeply annoying.
Jack shook his head, resisting the urge to give Reid a piece of his mind. He clearly needed to pay more attention to him.
"People's tolerance for vertical turbulence varies, just like on roller coasters. Most normal people wouldn't vomit mid-flight unless..." Reid continued, getting to the crux of the matter.
Jack quickly nodded in understanding, not wanting to picture what that scene might look like.
"You can think of vertical turbulence as a frequency. It has to reach a certain frequency to cause a person to vomit in a short time," Reid finally explained.
"And what could cause turbulence at that frequency?" Jack asked.
"Being caught in the wake of a larger aircraft. But at the time, there were no other planes nearby on radar," Lilo Box said, shrugging as he dismissed that possibility.
"Or perhaps the slats deployed mid-air," Reid suggested another theory.
Lilo Box shook his head. "The likelihood of the slats deploying during flight is incredibly rare. There are multiple safeguards to prevent that."
"Well, large passenger plane crashes are rare too, aren't they?" Reid retorted.
"Wait, can someone explain what a 'slat' is? Isn't it supposed to be called a flap or aileron?" Jack interrupted, getting more and more confused.
In his previous life, he had played *War Thunder* (a combat flight simulation game) extensively, racking up thousands of kills and losses. But the terms these two were throwing around suddenly seemed foreign to him.
"They're different. The wing has several different surfaces. The aileron is on the trailing edge of the wing, while there are both leading-edge and trailing-edge flaps. In addition, there are leading-edge slats, flight spoilers, and ground spoilers," Reid said, noticing Jack's dazed expression.
Reid flipped over the aerial site map he had been holding and quickly sketched a diagram of the wing with a pen.
"Commercial aircraft wings are complex. Leading-edge slats typically deploy during takeoff and landing to increase the plane's critical angle of attack, reducing the chance of stalling."
"But if they deploy mid-flight, it's a disaster."
Jack nodded, finally understanding, though adding another piece of useless trivia to his brain.
"Oh, great. More trouble," Lilo Box muttered, interrupting their conversation. He glanced toward a convoy of seven or eight news vans emblazoned with various TV station logos approaching the crash site.
"Looks like I'll have to excuse myself. The biggest challenge in investigations like this is staying ahead of the media and conspiracy theorists," Lilo Box said, shaking his head as he walked away.
"Thankfully, this is a joint investigation. There are people specifically assigned to deal with them. Otherwise, JJ probably wouldn't even get a chance to sleep tonight," Jack sighed, turning back to continue searching the site with Reid. Many areas they could only scan quickly, given the sheer size of the scene.
Analyzing a large-scale plane crash is a months-long, sometimes years-long, process. Fortunately, most of that work was for the NTSB. The FBI's main task was to quickly rule out the possibility of a terrorist attack.
After 9/11, the federal government had become particularly sensitive to such incidents. The FBI was extremely cautious in cases like this, aiming to issue warnings to senior officials as soon as possible if necessary. The question was whether they would need to consider grounding all flights in the short term until the threat of a follow-up attack could be ruled out.
Amid the wreckage, still smoldering, there were not only bodies but also scattered luggage and personal belongings. Among these, Jack and Reid found children's toys, baby bottles, and diapers. Although the NTSB hadn't yet provided a passenger list, it was clear that several of the victims had been children.
"I hope this is just a tragic accident," Jack sighed. No matter how many perpetrators he might bring to justice, it would only offer limited comfort to the victims' families. The dead, after all, could not be brought back.
Before nightfall, Jack and Reid left the crash site, heading to the hospital to meet up with JJ and Emily.
Meanwhile, Hotch and Rossi were calling from the Colorado Emergency Management Center. They confirmed that Flight 420 should not have been anywhere near Colorado; the crash site was 150 miles off its intended flight path.
Thirteen minutes before the crash, air traffic control had lost contact with the plane. This meant the aircraft had gone off course almost immediately after losing communication.
Then, ten minutes later—three minutes before the crash—the ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) was shut off. Whether it was turned off automatically or manually remained unclear.
The ACARS system serves as a data link between the aircraft and ground stations, transmitting real-time information.
For instance, if an engine issue is detected, the ACARS would automatically send a report to ground crews, allowing them to receive the data in real time.
When ACARS is turned off, ground control becomes blind to what's happening in the air. Only later can they analyze black box data to understand what went wrong.
At that moment, Hotch was with a military commander from DHS (Department of Homeland Security), interrogating a witness who claimed to have seen a "streak of light" in the sky.
The problem was that the witness, an elderly man named Petoskey, was a notorious conspiracy theorist and highly antagonistic toward the uniformed military officers. The situation had reached a standstill.
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