Chapter 104
Captain Ed Carmichael wound up the dual Honeywell HTF7250G turbine engines to their full fifteen thousand pounds of thrust and lifted off the Starks’ jet from Panama’s Enrique Adolfo Jiménez Airport. He headed due north out to sea, climbing rapidly through five thousand feet.
His flight plan said that he was traveling to Costa Rica.
But once over the water, he didn’t turn west to follow the coastline north and west. Instead, he shut down his transponder that would let traffic controllers know where his plane was and who it belonged to. Then he shut off the exterior lights and descended until he was headed out to sea at a mere fifty feet over the waves. A tricky maneuver in the dark at five hundred and fifty miles an hour.
He ran the turbines to the edge of yellow line and m
