Quietus

THE TEMPERATURE in the White Mountains had dropped to negative five degrees with a windchill factor of minus forty. The ten-passenger twin-engine aircraft floated across the vast gray sky, slowly gaining altitude. In spite of strong warnings from Air Traffic Control, the Merlin IV had taken off and had been in the air for nearly fifteen minutes.

Although all VFR-rated pilots at the Errol airport had been grounded, the pilot of the plane, Bud Graves, was Instrument-rated, therefore free to fl...