Chapter 4 - THE GROUNDING
Forty-eight hours later, the story broke.
It didn't start with a press release. It started with a local news crew that had been at the staging area when the Highway Patrol brought us in. A young investigative reporter named Sarah Lin had overheard my statement to the Sheriff.
By Monday morning, the headline was trending across California: "HERO PILOT OR DESERTER? CAL FIRE CONTRACTOR LEAVES WIFE AND SON IN WILDFIRE TO EVACUATE EX-GIRLFRIEND."
I sat in the office of Arthur Vance, one of Sacramento’s premier family law and aviation liability attorneys. Arthur was a silver-haired man with thirty years of court experience and eyes like a hawk.
"The cockpit audio has been subpoenaed," Arthur said, sliding a document across the polished oak table. "Ryan’s employer, Sierra Rotors LLC, initially tried to claim attorney-client privilege over the flight telemetry, but because they hold a public contract with Cal Fire, the state prosecutor forced the release."
"What's on it, Arthur?" I asked.
Arthur adjusted his glasses. "It’s worse than we thought, Natalie. Three minutes before he touched down on the ridge, Ryan was on the radio with Sierra Rotors dispatch. Dispatch explicitly informed him that a second rescue helicopter—a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane equipped with a hoist—was four minutes behind him."
I gasped, my hand going to my throat. "There was another helicopter coming?"
"Yes," Arthur said gravely. "The dispatch officer told Ryan to hold position high above the smoke envelope and let the Skycrane handle the full evacuation. But Ryan refused."
"Why?"
"Because," Arthur read directly from the transcript, "Ryan told dispatch: 'I have visual on Brooke Palmer's party. Thermal window is closing. I am executing immediate extraction.' He ignored the protocol. He went down specifically to pull Brooke out, knowing his fuel load would prevent him from taking everyone."
Tears of pure rage burned my eyes. "He knew another bird was coming, but he risked our lives just to play the savior for her?"
"And when he landed," Arthur continued, "he never informed you or Mr. Henderson that a heavy-lift helicopter was four minutes out. He left you believing you were going to burn to death on that ridge."
"That isn't just negligence," I whispered. "That's reckless endangerment. That's child abandonment."
"It is," Arthur agreed. "And as of nine o'clock this morning, the FAA has issued an emergency suspension of Ryan Brooks’s commercial pilot license pending a full hearing. Sierra Rotors has placed him on unpaid administrative leave."
The door to Arthur's office opened, and his secretary stepped in. "Mr. Vance, Mr. Brooks and his legal counsel are in Conference Room B. They are requesting an emergency settlement meeting before the preliminary custody hearing."
May you like
Arthur looked at me. "Do you want to see him?"
I stood up, adjusting my navy blazer. "I don't just want to see him, Arthur. I want him to understand that the machine he trusted so much is about to crush him."
