The last transmission from the tower, before we lost contact: “Legacy 600, you are deviating from controlled airspace. Please verify your pilot’s identity. Repeat: verify your pilot’s identity.”
But there is no pilot to verify. Only an empty lavatory, a ticking watch, and a message that keeps reappearing on every screen in the cockpit:
Co-pilot Araújo is strapped into his seat, but his hands are shaking too hard to work the radio. He keeps muttering the same phrase under his breath: “Apertem os cintos. O piloto sumiu.”
Nobody.