A new text just arrived:
Either our European friend dies or a passenger plane goes down. Help me out. Check ur email or 9th Wonders at boards.9thwonders.com/index.php?showforum=101
ETA: A new e-mail, with the subject "The German's flight plans" has also arrived:
I've got plans for our metal-bending German friend, but we've hit a major snag. Dekker even called Thompson back at the Company to report it (http://boards.9thwonders.com/index.php?showtopic=63845&st=75).
The extraction team has drugged him so he doesn't throw any bullets or planes around, but he's still fighting it: he's started emanating an unconscious electromagnetic field that's interfering with electronics for a quarter-mile around.
The team has partially shielded their plane so it can fly, but when they take off, every other plane in the vicinity might drop like a rock. Cargo planes we can risk, but a commercial passenger jet crash would bring too much attention. We need to get that team off the ground before the Company decides to the plug on the walking magnet; not only would that be a waste of the trouble it took to get him, but I have some very important plans for pet German.
So here's the deal. According to the flight schedule, there are five planes taking off around the same time as the German. If we can prove that no passenger planes are within at least two runways of us, they've got a green light to launch.
Unfortunately, I don't know what runways those planes using.
I've got air traffic control communications, cargo records, and maintenance logs, and here's what they do tell me. The five planes are each carrying one of the following cargoes: heavy machinery, seafood, electronics, mail, and passengers. The five planes seem to be an Airbus A320, an MD-80, a 737, a DC-9, and an A300. The flight numbers are 227, 639, 91, 128, and 555. The team reports that there are five runways, numbered 1 to 5 from north to south.
The Company plane will be on a charter strip south of Runway 5. Get me proof that there are two runways between the German and the nearest passenger plane.
- According to air traffic control, Flight 227 and Flight 639 have to have two runways in between them in order to have room to turn to their proper headings.
- The flight schedule also says that Flight 91 is taking off from a runway somewhere south of Flight 128's, in order to avoid blocking Flight 128 in its terminal while taxiing.
- The maintenance log has an entry that indicates that the A320 and A300 parts were switched and delivered to the wrong service areas and had to be -- heavily underlined -- "hand-carried" across the two intervening runway areas. The log refers to the A300 being "north," which would make it on a lower-numbered runway.
- An air traffic controller memo mentions Flight 555 being moved to Runway 3.
- One of the maintenance crews that carried the A300 parts to their correct location noted being able to smell the "fresh" seafood being loaded on a cargo plane even from three runways away (so, two intervening runways).
- Flight 227 complained to air traffic control about planes regularly being loaded with heavy machinery on the tarmac two runways away.
- The cargo records mention the electronics and the mail being delivered to planes separated by two runways. The records referred to the mail being sent to the "south tarmac," which would make it a higher-numbered runway.
- The MD-80 was serviced on the runway right next to the A320.
- Flight 227 has dedicated use of the high-tech loading facilities on Runway 4.
- The Company team has observed that the long Runway 3 seems to be dedicated to Boeing 737s.
Looks like we have a new puzzle...
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