e or four of these
unexplainable accidents and somebody is sure to come up with a really
crackpot idea. The general public will not be convinced that this sort
of thing can happen with no discoverable reason. Usually we have no
way of reconstructing what happened before the accident. Just a couple
of unintelligible remarks on the radio, as there were here, and then
everyone is dead, the plane is totally demolished, and witnesses on
the ground come up with ten different hysterical accounts--if there
are any witnesses at all!"

"But this was a little different, after all, senator," Kessler
interjected.

Brogan held up his hand again. "Just let me have my say. You know we
folks down here in Washington always have a lot to say and we hate
being interrupted." He smiled briefly. "This sort of thing has been
going on in aviation history for the last fifty years--these
unexplained accidents--and there's nothing especially new about this
last one. You're shaking your head, but let me continue. One of the
reasons they are now getting so much attention is that with the big
jets the loss of life is apt to be pretty appalling when an accident
does happen, but the actual number of accidents per flight--as you
well know--is far fewer than it used to be and has been going down
steadily over the years."

Kessler, slumped deep in his chair, fingers arced together before him,
stared morosely but said nothing. "Secondly," Brogan went on, "it is
not true that these accidents are happening more to American planes
than foreign ones. Again it is chiefly that we are scheduling more and
more flights. On the law of averages we are doing very well. You know
how many crashes the foreign carriers have chalked up in the last
year. And just about the same proportion are these so-called
unexplainable crashes. It's not that they are unexplainable! It's
simply that we don't have the information that would explain them! The
very circumstances preclude that. Am I making any sense?"

Kessler nodded. "Yes, senator, I suppose you are, but it doesn't make
me any happier. I want to find out why and stop them."

"So do I, I assure you. But let me finish briefly. Among the other
wild rumors are suggestions that we are being sabotaged by foreign
agents or by their tools. Well now, I'd be the last one in the
world--you know my record--to deny the possibility of some folks doing
this if they thought they could get away with it. If I thought for one
moment--or