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Aircraft: Embraer Legacy 600 Position: Unknown, over the Amazon Basin
The plane dropped 2,000 feet before I grabbed the yoke.
Airplane- - Apertem os Cintos O Piloto Sumiu -N... Airplane- - Apertem os Cintos O Piloto Sumiu -N...
Co-pilot Araújo is strapped into his seat, but his hands are shaking too hard to work the radio. He keeps muttering the same phrase under his breath: “Apertem os cintos. O piloto sumiu.”
Because whatever took him is still on this plane. And it’s learning how to fly. Aircraft: Embraer Legacy 600 Position: Unknown, over the
I asked Araújo what the “-N...” at the end of the subject line means. He looked at me like I’d spoken a dead language. Then he typed it into the navigation computer.
The last transmission from the tower, before we lost contact: “Legacy 600, you are deviating from controlled airspace. Please verify your pilot’s identity. Repeat: verify your pilot’s identity.” He keeps muttering the same phrase under his
Now the cabin lights are flickering. Portuguese, English, and a third language I don’t recognize are cycling through the PA system. The third one sounds like consonants folding in on themselves. The passengers are screaming.
The autopilot is still on. The heading shows we’re flying in a perfect 180-mile loop over dense jungle. I’ve checked every door, every closet, every crawlspace in this fuselage. There are 48 passengers, all calm because they don’t know yet. All I told them was to keep their belts fastened due to “mild turbulence.”
Captain Mendes had gone to the lavatory twelve minutes ago. He never came back.