There were groans throughout the room. "Turbulence!" The engineers shook their heads.

"-severe turbulence, producing extreme pitch excursions in flight."

"Ah, Christ," Burne said.

"The aircraft," Marder continued, "made an emergency landing at LAX, and medical units were on hand. Our preliminary report indicates fifty-six injured, and three dead."

"Oh that's very bad," Doug Doherty said in a sad monotone, blinking behind his thick glasses. "I suppose this means we've got the NTSB on our backs," he said.

Casey leaned over to Richman and whispered, "National Transportation Safety Board usually gets involved when there are fatalities."

"Not in this case," Marder said. "This is a foreign carrier, and the incident occurred in international airspace. NTSB has its hands full with the Colombia crash. We think they're going to pass on this one."

'Turbulence," Kenny Burne said, snorting. "Is there any confirmation?"

"No," Marder said. "The plane was at thirty-seven thousand feet when the incident took place. No other aircraft at that altitude and position reported weather problems."

"Satellite weather maps?" Casey said.

"Coming."

"What about the passengers?" she said. "Did the captain make an announcement? Was the seat-belt sign on?"

"Nobody's interviewed the passengers yet. But our preliminary information suggests no announcement was made."

Richman was looking bewildered again. Casey scribbled a note on her yellow pad, tilted it so he could read: No Turbulence.

Trung said, "Have we debriefed the pilot?"

"No," Marder said. "The flight crew caught a connecting flight out, and left the country."

"Oh great," Kenny Burne said, throwing his pencil on the table. "Just great. We got a damn hit-and-run."

"Hold on, now," Mike Lee said, in a cool tone. "On behalf of the carrier, I think we have to recognize the flight crew acted responsibly. They have no liability here; but they face possible litigation from the civil aviation authorities in Hong Kong, and they went home to deal with it"