“I’m an airline pilot,” said Cole. He might not be a Coast Airlines employee, but he knew the industry.
“Bully for you,” said Julius.
“It might be better if you excused us,” Roth said to Cole.
Cole looked to Amber. He could go or he could stay, but he was taking his cue from her, not from Roth.
“What about the other Boonsome 300s in service?” asked Max. He was scrolling through the screen on his phone. “Here. Midpoint Airlines just grounded theirs.”
“That was fast,” said Sidney.
“Kneejerk,” said Julius. “It’s not like there’s a pattern.”
“They’ve got a total of three Boonsomes,” said Roth. “It’s an easy decision for them to make.”
“It puts pressure on us,” said Sidney.
“We’re not caving to pressure,” said Roth. “We’ve got twenty-four Boonsomes. It’s a quarter of our fleet.”
Amber’s hand was resting on the telephone. “We could have lost two hundred passengers.”
“We didn’t,” said Julius.
“We’re not considering this,” said Roth with finality. “Unless the federal regulator orders us, we are not grounding twenty-four airplanes.”
“It’s a publicity grab from Midpoint,” said Julius.
Cole couldn’t help jumping in. “Depending on the problem.”
“We’ll find the problem,” said Roth. “And we’ll fix it. Nobody’s suggesting we send that particular plane up again without a thorough overhaul.”
“And if something happens with another Boonsome?” asked Sidney.
“Nothing’s going to happen,” said Roth.
“You’re playing the odds,” said Amber.
“I play the odds every time I get out of bed,” said Roth. “You want one hundred percent certainty? We lose a million dollars a day with those planes on the ground. That’s a certainty. It’ll take two weeks minimum to get any answers on an investigation. Anybody want to do the math?”
Max looked to Amber. “What are your thoughts?”
“That’s a lot of money,” she said. “But it’s a lot of lives to risk, too.” Her gaze moved to Cole.
Julius gestured to Amber, disdain in his tone. “This is our leader?”
“She’s looking for input,” said Max. “I’m looking for input, too.”
Roth’s face twisted into a sneer. “My input is don’t bankrupt the company while you’re temporarily in charge.”
Cole clamped his jaw to stop himself from speaking.
“The plane is at the gate,” said Sidney. “And the terminal is full of reporters.”
“We have to put out a statement,” said Roth.