The clock on the nightstand read 2 a.m., but Tom Haueter was wide awake. He usually was a leaden sleeper, dead to the world once his head hit the pillow. But now a nightmare had jolted him awake.
By day, Haueter ran the investigation into the crash of USAir Flight 427. He was the consummate man in charge, all confidence and certainty. At night, though, his doubts sometimes overcame him.
It had been nine months since the USAir plane had corkscrewed out of the blue sky over Pittsburgh and dived into a hill at 300 mph, but Haueter still didn't know why.
He had run many investigations for the National Transportation Safety Board, and this one had started like all the rest. The peculiar smell of death mixed with jet fuel, the adrenaline rush from the first few days examining wreckage. But the rush had long since passed.
Investigators typically figure out the cause a week or two after a crash, but not this time. They had chased countless leads and run test after test after test and come up empty. Now Haueter lay in the dark, tormented at the prospect that he would never solve it.
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