Without a Trace s05e12 Episode Script
Tail Spin
Burkhart Tower Sierra Tango 205, descend to 500, bearing 158.
Burkhart Tower Sierra Tango, do you copy? Burkhart Tower, this is Hotel 33 Foxtrot coming up on Runway 2 for take off.
Repeat, coming up on runway 2 for take off.
Hotel Foxtrot, please standby.
Burkhart Tower, this is Sierra Tango.
Descending to 500 Whoa, whoa, it's bumpy up here.
- I'm having some trouble holding it to - Sierra Tango, please repeat.
- He's headed into crosswinds.
- Yeah, I know, Pat.
- What do you got? Burkhart Tower.
- I see him.
I still can't see your lights.
Neil, you've got him coming into runway 2.
Burkhart Tower, this is Hotel Foxtrot on Runway 2.
Mayday, mayday.
He's flying right at us.
Burkhart Tower, this is Sierra Tango is that another bird on our landing path? Get him out of the way.
- Sierra Tango, turn south to 170.
- One-seven-zero.
- Get him off the runway.
Take over, Pat.
Burkhart Tower, this is Hotel Foxtrot.
Please advise.
Hotel 333 Foxtrot, take evasive action.
Take evasive action immediately.
We're taking evasive action.
Repeat, we are getting off the runway.
He missed.
We're okay, he missed.
Burkhart Tower, this is Sierra Tango.
We're safe and on the ground.
Neil, you all right? - What was that about? - I'm sorry, man.
I just lost track of my ground positions.
- You froze up.
- I know.
L Look, I'm not feeling too good.
You mind if I go home? Patrick's here.
He's already in the chair.
Yeah, go ahead.
Okay, can you get that message through to my cell phone? - Thank you.
- Sorry I'm late.
It took hours to get here from the city.
- What do we got? - Neil Rawlings, 38, his son, Owen, 17.
Neil is an air traffic controller at Burkhart Regional.
Mom around? - Not anymore.
She died in a car accident a year ago.
- Who called it in? - The security company.
When the alarm went off at 10: 18 last night security company called here.
This is a recording of that call.
Hello? This is First On-Site Security.
- Can I have your password, please? It's P2571.
I'm not going anywhere.
We need to talk.
I'm warning you.
- You need to fix this.
You need to go.
Hold on.
Sir, is everything okay? You need you to fix this! Are you there, sir? That's it.
PD showed up within the hour.
Nobody was here.
Nothing's been taken.
Lady across the street saw a Mercedes peeling out while the alarm went off.
- Did she get a license plate? - No.
- But she thinks it was a man driving.
- All right, get me a description.
This guy should have stayed in the control tower.
Neil's one of my best guys.
Military trained, handy with computers.
So were you surprised when he called in sick? Yeah, he never misses work.
At what time was that? Around 6:30 a.
m.
Now, has he being acting strange lately? - Well, how do you mean? - Odd phone calls, fights with coworkers.
I thought somebody broke into his house.
Yeah, but it doesn't look like it was a robbery.
We're trying to determine whether someone had it out for Neil or his son.
He did have a tough time landing a plane, which is out of character.
But in Neil's defense, it was a snowstorm.
You're telling me he made a mistake? Look, you gotta understand at any given time an ATC has a dozen factors affecting each plane.
You add the lives in your hands and it's pretty unforgiving.
Still doesn't answer my question.
He froze up for a second.
But considering the scrutiny, I'd say he deserves a break.
What do you mean "scrutiny"? We had an incident the other day.
Echo Charlie 527 turn southwest at 1-niner-5.
Roger that.
Winds at 220 at 12.
Report airport in sight.
Turning to 1-niner-5.
Chris, mind taking over? Ken, come over here.
What's up? - I'm not sure.
- Do you know Ghalib Al-Nayhan? - Yeah, what about him? I landed his twin engine, but before he came in he was circling the power plant.
- You tell him it was restricted airspace? Yeah, but he kept going below minimum altitude.
That's not good.
He had a passenger.
Every time he called in I heard Arabic on his frequency.
We're gonna need to report this.
What if it's nothing.
What if he was being stupid? That's a risky "what if.
" It's gonna kick up a lot of dirt, Ken.
We gotta cover our asses, Neil.
I called it in.
- The next day DHS was here grilling us.
- Right, and this guy, Ghalib? Ghalib Al-Nayhan.
He's been flying out of here for a couple of years.
Now, did DHS arrest him? Not that I know.
But I heard he was furious we reported him.
Is there any chance he knew Neil was the one who turned him in? Wouldn't have been hard to figure out.
All right.
- Hey.
- Hey.
We found Neil's son at his aunt's house in Tarrytown.
He's been there about a week.
They're on their way in.
Anything on the blood that was found in Neil's kitchen? Yeah, it's O-positive.
I'm waiting on his military records to see if it matches.
- Okay.
- Ghalib owns a blue Mercedes just like the one seen leaving Neil's house.
Does DHS still have him in custody? No, he had authorization to fly over that power plant because his engineering firm is retrofitting the site.
Paperwork never made it to the tower.
- But they did detain his cousin.
- Why? He's been donating money to a mosque in Beirut which houses Shiite radicals.
- That would do it.
- Yeah.
Any idea where Ghalib is right now? Yeah, he's on an aerial survey in New Jersey.
We got people waiting to pick him up.
Okay.
Agent Malone, Owen Rawlings is here.
Okay, thank you.
Hey, Jack I called up to Anne's office to get some help with this aviation stuff and they said she doesn't work here.
- That's right.
From now on you should contact Agent Vasquez.
He's taking care of it.
When was the last time you saw your dad? Four days ago.
He came by my Aunt Karen's to drop off some stuff I left at home.
Why are you staying at your aunt's? Because my dad's an ass.
Owen, stop.
We haven't gotten along since my mom died.
Did you have a fight? - One of many.
- Anything different about this one? I don't know.
Tell them what you told me, Owen.
This guy came by the house.
I'm done, okay.
You need to find yourself somebody else.
You think it's that easy? - I really don't care.
Dad? - What's going on? - Just go upstairs, son.
That your boy? - Yeah.
You need to go and don't come back.
Then don't give me a reason to.
Who was that? - Nobody.
What are you mixed up in? - You don't need to know.
- What the hell do you know? - You don't know what cereal I like.
- Don't start.
- So you can pretend I don't exist? - That's enough.
Mom's dead.
You can't pawn me off on her.
I said that's enough.
The next day he sent me away.
He said it would be good for me.
- He was just trying to get rid of me.
- That's not true.
Your dad loves you.
My dad doesn't love anyone or anything since mom died.
No, it just feels that way.
It's been hard on both of you.
Ever seen this man with your dad? I don't think so.
His name's Ghalib Al-Nayhan.
I've never heard of him.
What about the guy who came to your house, you seen him before? Nope.
Okay.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Neil's blood doesn't match the blood at the house.
It might belong to the intruder.
Or the son.
What do you think? The kid didn't look hurt to me.
But his mom crashed at an intersection near their house.
And he and his father saw the whole thing.
Wow.
That's gotta be tough.
And Neil's credit card records indicate he's been a regular at a bar in Tarrytown.
If that happened to me.
I might be in there every single night.
Yeah.
He's also owes $ 145,000 for his wife's hospital bills.
And what's all this? Flight plans and transcripts from Neil's airport.
I've been trying to decipher the numbers and I cannot figure it out.
Talk about a job that will drive you to drink.
Well, if you help me, guess what.
I'll buy the martinis.
I'm worth more than that.
Those are the tail numbers we're looking for.
- Ghalib Al-Nayhan? That you? Yes.
- FBI.
- I already spoke to Homeland Security.
- I'm not a terrorist.
- Why did you go after Neil Rawlings? - What? - Last night, somebody saw a car that looks just like yours leaving Neil's house.
Now he's missing.
- I don't know where he is.
- But you were there? Ghalib, a government employee's missing and you're the primary suspect.
You keep giving Homeland Security ammunition.
Fine.
I was there.
But I went to confront him.
Because this whole mess is killing my family.
But when I got there, it all got turned around.
Rawlings was in his kitchen.
Do you hear me? My cousin was just visiting me, Rawlings.
Now, he's been disappeared somewhere.
- I was doing my job.
- What do you think I was doing? I can't deal with this right now.
All you gotta say is that we didn't do anything.
Do you know what you're putting my family through? - Neil.
- I'm done with this, Ghalib.
What the hell is going on? - You need to leave.
- I'm not going anywhere.
Hello? - It's P2571.
- I'm not going anywhere.
- I'm warning you.
- We need to talk.
- I'm warning you.
- Fix this.
- Okay, hold on.
Hold on.
- You need to fix this.
Get out.
Go.
- What are you doing? Get out! - Hey.
I got the hell out of there.
I mean, this guy was insane.
- Was there anyone else there? - Not that I saw.
- Then whose blood was all over Neil? - I don't know.
But there was a lot of it.
Anything else out of Ghalib? Nope.
It's his story and he's sticking to it.
Well, I've had no luck ID'ing the guy who was harassing Neil at his house, so You know what? I'll look into violent crimes around that area.
I spoke to the bartender at the bar where Neil drinks.
His drinking buddy is none other than Karen Murphy.
- His sister-in-law? - Mm-hm.
Yeah.
It must be hard losing a sister.
She meant the world to me.
Sometimes people cope with the loss of someone close to them in interesting ways.
I'm not sure what you mean.
Are you having an affair? Excuse me? You've been seen drinking with him on a regular basis at the Courtyard Hotel.
We get together to talk.
And then retire for a night of familial intimacy.
Bartender said you were all over each other by last call.
It just sort of happened, all right? After Kirsten died, we connected.
It helped.
Why didn't you tell us this before? Because Owen was there.
Anyway, it's over.
Neil broke it off last week.
- Karen, stop.
- No.
- What, did somebody see us? - No, no, no.
Stop.
Just stop.
Stop! I can't do this, just stop.
- What are you talking about? - This is messed up.
This whole situation's What would Kirsten say? I don't understand, what's changed? Nothing.
Nothing has changed.
That's the problem.
It's been a year and we're still Still sneaking around.
You need this as much as I do.
I need to take care of my son.
- Don't make this about him.
- It is about him, okay? Ever since Kirsten died, Owen's practically been on his own.
I'm sorry.
I need to start fixing things.
All right? This is not about you.
We argued for a while and then I had to leave to pick up Owen.
And these things that he had to fix, any idea what they were? No.
I asked.
He wouldn't tell me.
- Hey, Danny? - Yeah? Come here, please.
- What's up? - Every control tower records its radio transmissions, right? I've been listening to Neil and I found this.
Kilo 36 Omega, contact New York Tracon on 1- 1-niner-point-2.
Contacting New York Tracon on 1- 1-niner-point-2, Kilo 36 Omega.
- That sound, is that the snow storm? - Yeah.
Shh.
Now.
- Okay.
Now, do you hear that? - Yeah, it sounds different.
So one moment it's loud and then goes quiet.
So I looked into it and the time code skips.
It goes from 22 hours, two minutes to 22 hours, 12 minutes.
Hello? What's up? Nothing, I'm just Someone's trying to hide whatever happened in those 10 minutes.
- Right? - Correct, sir.
So I'm gonna find out who that is.
- All right? - All right.
Careful, brother.
So an ER doc from Windham Memorial ID'd Neil from the pictures we sent.
Did he check himself in? Nope, but he dropped off a John Doe before Ghalib saw him.
- This is Neil.
Shot of the other guy? - That's the best we have.
- His injuries? - Pretty severe.
Broken arm.
Punctured lung, shattered cheek bone.
The doctor thinks car accident.
Or this is the guy that went to Neil's house and Neil kicked his ass.
Yeah, but then why would he drop him off at the ER? Is this seat taken? I'm sorry about what happened before.
If you don't want me knowing about your life, fine but don't tell me Anne's pregnant and then act like I'm butting in.
I don't care what you do with your personal life anymore, okay? I don't.
If there was anyone that I was gonna confide in it would be you.
But I don't even know where to start.
Jack, I need you in the Tech Room.
Okay.
Sorry.
So ten minutes were missing.
Now, how did that happen? - At 11: 15 that night somebody hacked the computer to dump some files.
- Oh, let me guess, audio files, right? - Yup.
So the system is designed to record transmissions into a hard drive.
Whoever did this knew to lift the files and corrupt them.
Neil's handy with computers.
The computer creates a token table of each file.
Based on another file from that program, we can recreate the corrupted one.
When was this recorded? It was three hours before Neil had that near crash.
this is Burkhart Tower please set altimeter to 3014.
Altimeter at 3014, 08 November.
verify altitude at 1800 and ident.
Altitude: 1800, 08 November.
It's getting kind of rough up here.
Weather breaks at 1500.
- 08 November, acknowledge.
- Burkhart Tower, do you read me? Descending to 1200, but visibility is zero.
Wait, what the hell was that? We hit something.
Mayday, mayday.
We're going down.
We are going Was he in the tower by himself? I think from 10 to midnight.
So plenty of time to hack into the system and cover up the crash.
Local PD's looking for the crashed plane within 10 miles of the tower.
The John Doe Neil took into the hospital could've been on the flight.
If Neil was trying to cover that up why would he look for survivors? Well, maybe he felt guilty.
The plane that crashed is a Cessna 206, and in the transmission Neil says the plane was coming from Buffalo.
I called Buffalo and they never heard of that plane.
- Why would he lie about its origin? - Avoiding customs? Listen to this one: appears in Neil's logs every two weeks for the last six months.
Hm.
Henry Fenk.
I don't know who that is.
Nice try.
We took your fingerprints while you were under.
- Who the hell are you? FBI.
We're looking for Neil Rawlings.
I've never heard of him.
Henry, we know you're drug trafficking.
We've a warrant for your arrest.
We know that Neil was working with you.
Come on.
- It hurts.
- Who else knew that Neil was involved? Nobody.
This guy maybe? Did you send him over to threaten Neil? No drugs until you start talking.
Okay.
That's Charlie.
Him and me, we We fly the loads in together and we drive them down the coast.
There's nobody else, I swear.
- What about Neil? - He just alters the flight plans.
That's it.
It's gotta be more than that.
The guy saved your life.
Saved me? The only thing Neil saved was his own ass.
Neil? - Ah! - Neil? - I thought you were dead.
Neil? Neil.
I can't I can't move.
You gotta get me out of here, man.
You should've thought before you threatened my son.
I didn't.
It was Charlie.
Neil, Neil.
You can't leave me out here, man.
There's nothing I can do for you, man.
Get me out of here.
I'm bleeding out, you son of a bitch.
Don't leave me.
Neil! Neil, shoot me.
Shoot Shoot me.
There's a gun under my seat.
- I'm gonna die out here.
- All right.
Just shut up.
I'm gonna get you out of here.
Shut up! Just shut up.
He strapped me to a part of the wing.
The only reason Neil went back up there was to get the emergency locator.
He would have left me up there if I didn't wake up, man.
You have any idea where plane went down? The mountains.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Can I please have my morphine back? Sure.
Jack.
I got Neil's picture out to airports and brought Interpol up to speed.
Good.
Do you really think he left the country? Well, it's the next logical step.
Ever since he crashed that plane he's been covering his tracks.
Except bringing Fenk to the hospital.
Just an attack of conscience.
Which is not a good thing if you're a fugitive.
Doesn't mean he's not on the run.
Ever since this guy's wife died his whole life's just been spiraling.
He's made one bad decision after the other.
It was a question of time before he came unglued.
What about the son? - What about him? - He's been so concerned about this boy.
You think he's gonna abandon him after everything? I think he's so wrapped up in his own stuff.
- He abandoned that kid a long time ago.
- Doesn't matter how bad things get.
I will never, ever in a million years leave my child, you know? Agent Malone, the guy from NTSB has some information for you.
Okay, thank you.
I'll catch up.
- Okay, right.
Delgado.
Hey.
- Jack Malone, FBI.
- Phil Hansen, NTSB.
So, what do you make of that transmission? Well, your ATC makes a lot of odd choices.
Odd in which way? For one thing, he resets the pilot's altimeter to the wrong altitude.
The way he rerouted him seems counterintuitive to the weather that night.
Is it possible he was drunk? He doesn't sound drunk.
And with his experience, I find it hard to believe he'd make these mistakes.
So these decisions are intentional? I don't have a better explanation.
Hey, Jack.
Excuse me.
You know that Neil has been landing Now, the plane has been flying into Burkhart for over a year.
- And who was landing it before that? - ATC Ken Brown.
I think we need to talk to him again.
Omega 57 Bravo, switch to niner-7-point-2 for communication with NY Tracon.
Roger.
- Have a good night.
You didn't tell us Neil crashed a plane.
What plane? - Henry Fenk's plane.
- Who's Henry Fenk? The same guy you were landing drugs for six months ago.
What did you do to Neil Rawlings? - I didn't do anything to Neil.
- But you know who did.
Listen, if he crashed that plane intentionally they're gonna lay it off onto you.
You're gonna need protection.
You got a family, right? All right, look Fenk's people are crazy.
I tried to quit once and that Charlie guy set my RV on fire.
Why do you think I brought Neil in in the first place? Hey.
I got a call from Owen.
Water heater broke.
- Foot of water in my basement.
- Go.
I'll cover for you.
All of Kirsten's stuff was down there.
L It just It doesn't stop.
Oh, man.
Sit down for a minute.
Oh, my You know, last night, I was heading home and I ended up right at the intersection where Kirsten I mean, how am I supposed to avoid that? Can't unless you circle by Albany on your way to work.
I just sat.
I sat there at the light until someone came behind me and honked.
I was just I thought, you know, what if What if she was like 15 minutes late, you know, and the sun had already set? Or what if the driver would've worn sunglasses? It's not fair.
Just It's not fair, Neil.
No.
It's not.
Anyway, to top it off, I've gotta buy a water heater with money I don't have because I gave it to a hospital that couldn't save her.
I obviously can't change everything but I might be able to help with the money part a little better.
I laid out the whole thing for him and at first he said no.
But later he agreed.
Everything was fine.
Until he talked that plane into the ground.
Actually three days ago he came in wanting out.
Really? What do you think changed his mind? It was about his son.
I guess he got himself in trouble.
Owed some bookie 5000 bucks.
If that's true, and Neil needed the money, why'd he give up the drug smuggling? He had the money to cover the bet.
- It was about taking care of the kid.
- What did you say to him? I told him Fenk would never go for it.
But he didn't care.
He said he'd do whatever it took.
Why am I back here? What do you want from me? Your mother is deceased, right? Yeah.
My mother died when I was 16 and I was left with my father.
Really? That blows for you.
Yes, it did.
How's it working for you? I'm not really interested in some made up story about how we're alike.
After she died, whenever I tried to talk to him about anything something good, something bad all I'd ever see was the back of a newspaper.
So, what, this is supposed to make me feel like we're connected or something? - Yeah.
Yeah, because I get it.
I get how you could get in so much trouble.
And $5000 is a lot of trouble.
- Like I know what you're talking about.
- Let's say somebody had it in for you because you got yourself in a hole gambling and they had your father.
Now, I would need to know who that person was.
- He's fine.
- How do you know that? How do you know it? He He came to see me.
When? Right after I talked to you.
He told me all about the plane.
He was gonna turn himself in.
You got away with it.
- Why can't we just run? - Because.
- We can start over.
- No, we can't, Owen.
We have to face reality here.
I killed somebody, son.
- But he was a drug dealer.
He wa - It doesn't matter what he was.
I've gotta take responsibility for this, do you understand? I screwed up.
I let you down.
So now what? What, you go off to jail and what happens to me? - Karen's gonna take you.
- She can't.
- Yes, she can.
- No, she can't! - I'm in the hole again.
- What? I gave you $5000 to give them, to pay them off.
- I thought I could double it.
- How much do you owe them, Owen? - Thirteen thousand.
- Argh! I don't have that kind of money to give them, son.
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Listen, I'm gonna fix this, okay? I'll fix things.
I will, I will.
He told me to wait to hear back from him.
What was the person you borrowed money from? His name's Duke Bowden.
When was the last time you saw your father? Around 6 p.
m.
Last night.
Okay, I want you to wait here.
I'm gonna send someone in to take care of you.
All right.
Okay.
Thanks.
Viv, Hudson PD just found Neil's Jeep behind Duke Bowden's house but there's no sign of either of them.
Well, this guy's got a couple of priors for assault.
Maybe Neil tried to reason with him and it got ugly.
Well, maybe Neil paid him.
He didn't have the money.
Well, the drugs on that plane, they're worth at least 13 grand.
Yeah? Okay, thanks.
We found Bowden's car.
Nice.
Park Ranger found Duke's car about an hour ago.
Engine was still warm.
Thinking they maybe have a 90-minute head start.
How are we doing on the search? Half the party's already out there.
We're good to go.
Hey, I've located the plane.
Should approach with extreme caution.
Copy that.
We got one down.
He's dead.
If they're carrying the rest, they can't be far.
Duke Bowden.
Keep your hands where I can see them.
- I need help.
- Keep your hands where I can see them.
I'm losing blood, man.
Where's Neil Rawlings? I don't know.
- Please, I need help.
- Lf you want help, tell us where he is.
He's down there.
You should've warned me.
- I didn't see the hole.
I told you we should've done this at daybreak.
- I don't recognize this ledge.
- We're going a different way.
You trying to get me lost? Don't be an idiot.
How much longer we gonna be? I don't know, I don't usually hike through the woods with bags of dope.
Maybe that's why you brought me up here.
To help you carry this stuff and then get rid of me.
- I told you, I don't want the drugs.
- I think you do.
I crawled back up.
But he hit his head on a rock.
He wasn't moving when I left.
- Got him? - Yeah.
Rawlings.
I got Rawlings, he's alive.
Great, I'm one my way.
This is Agent Fitzgerald.
Let's have the chopper remain on standby.
Ten-four, air rescue unit standing by.
Copy that.
How you holding up? I don't know.
Your dad has a slight concussion and some frostbite but other than that he's gonna be okay.
Is he going to jail? Yeah.
This sucks.
Yes, it does.
I miss my mom.
I miss mine too.
Owen: Dad.
- Another happy ending? - Mm-hm.
Anne lost the baby.
Adapted by:
Burkhart Tower Sierra Tango, do you copy? Burkhart Tower, this is Hotel 33 Foxtrot coming up on Runway 2 for take off.
Repeat, coming up on runway 2 for take off.
Hotel Foxtrot, please standby.
Burkhart Tower, this is Sierra Tango.
Descending to 500 Whoa, whoa, it's bumpy up here.
- I'm having some trouble holding it to - Sierra Tango, please repeat.
- He's headed into crosswinds.
- Yeah, I know, Pat.
- What do you got? Burkhart Tower.
- I see him.
I still can't see your lights.
Neil, you've got him coming into runway 2.
Burkhart Tower, this is Hotel Foxtrot on Runway 2.
Mayday, mayday.
He's flying right at us.
Burkhart Tower, this is Sierra Tango is that another bird on our landing path? Get him out of the way.
- Sierra Tango, turn south to 170.
- One-seven-zero.
- Get him off the runway.
Take over, Pat.
Burkhart Tower, this is Hotel Foxtrot.
Please advise.
Hotel 333 Foxtrot, take evasive action.
Take evasive action immediately.
We're taking evasive action.
Repeat, we are getting off the runway.
He missed.
We're okay, he missed.
Burkhart Tower, this is Sierra Tango.
We're safe and on the ground.
Neil, you all right? - What was that about? - I'm sorry, man.
I just lost track of my ground positions.
- You froze up.
- I know.
L Look, I'm not feeling too good.
You mind if I go home? Patrick's here.
He's already in the chair.
Yeah, go ahead.
Okay, can you get that message through to my cell phone? - Thank you.
- Sorry I'm late.
It took hours to get here from the city.
- What do we got? - Neil Rawlings, 38, his son, Owen, 17.
Neil is an air traffic controller at Burkhart Regional.
Mom around? - Not anymore.
She died in a car accident a year ago.
- Who called it in? - The security company.
When the alarm went off at 10: 18 last night security company called here.
This is a recording of that call.
Hello? This is First On-Site Security.
- Can I have your password, please? It's P2571.
I'm not going anywhere.
We need to talk.
I'm warning you.
- You need to fix this.
You need to go.
Hold on.
Sir, is everything okay? You need you to fix this! Are you there, sir? That's it.
PD showed up within the hour.
Nobody was here.
Nothing's been taken.
Lady across the street saw a Mercedes peeling out while the alarm went off.
- Did she get a license plate? - No.
- But she thinks it was a man driving.
- All right, get me a description.
This guy should have stayed in the control tower.
Neil's one of my best guys.
Military trained, handy with computers.
So were you surprised when he called in sick? Yeah, he never misses work.
At what time was that? Around 6:30 a.
m.
Now, has he being acting strange lately? - Well, how do you mean? - Odd phone calls, fights with coworkers.
I thought somebody broke into his house.
Yeah, but it doesn't look like it was a robbery.
We're trying to determine whether someone had it out for Neil or his son.
He did have a tough time landing a plane, which is out of character.
But in Neil's defense, it was a snowstorm.
You're telling me he made a mistake? Look, you gotta understand at any given time an ATC has a dozen factors affecting each plane.
You add the lives in your hands and it's pretty unforgiving.
Still doesn't answer my question.
He froze up for a second.
But considering the scrutiny, I'd say he deserves a break.
What do you mean "scrutiny"? We had an incident the other day.
Echo Charlie 527 turn southwest at 1-niner-5.
Roger that.
Winds at 220 at 12.
Report airport in sight.
Turning to 1-niner-5.
Chris, mind taking over? Ken, come over here.
What's up? - I'm not sure.
- Do you know Ghalib Al-Nayhan? - Yeah, what about him? I landed his twin engine, but before he came in he was circling the power plant.
- You tell him it was restricted airspace? Yeah, but he kept going below minimum altitude.
That's not good.
He had a passenger.
Every time he called in I heard Arabic on his frequency.
We're gonna need to report this.
What if it's nothing.
What if he was being stupid? That's a risky "what if.
" It's gonna kick up a lot of dirt, Ken.
We gotta cover our asses, Neil.
I called it in.
- The next day DHS was here grilling us.
- Right, and this guy, Ghalib? Ghalib Al-Nayhan.
He's been flying out of here for a couple of years.
Now, did DHS arrest him? Not that I know.
But I heard he was furious we reported him.
Is there any chance he knew Neil was the one who turned him in? Wouldn't have been hard to figure out.
All right.
- Hey.
- Hey.
We found Neil's son at his aunt's house in Tarrytown.
He's been there about a week.
They're on their way in.
Anything on the blood that was found in Neil's kitchen? Yeah, it's O-positive.
I'm waiting on his military records to see if it matches.
- Okay.
- Ghalib owns a blue Mercedes just like the one seen leaving Neil's house.
Does DHS still have him in custody? No, he had authorization to fly over that power plant because his engineering firm is retrofitting the site.
Paperwork never made it to the tower.
- But they did detain his cousin.
- Why? He's been donating money to a mosque in Beirut which houses Shiite radicals.
- That would do it.
- Yeah.
Any idea where Ghalib is right now? Yeah, he's on an aerial survey in New Jersey.
We got people waiting to pick him up.
Okay.
Agent Malone, Owen Rawlings is here.
Okay, thank you.
Hey, Jack I called up to Anne's office to get some help with this aviation stuff and they said she doesn't work here.
- That's right.
From now on you should contact Agent Vasquez.
He's taking care of it.
When was the last time you saw your dad? Four days ago.
He came by my Aunt Karen's to drop off some stuff I left at home.
Why are you staying at your aunt's? Because my dad's an ass.
Owen, stop.
We haven't gotten along since my mom died.
Did you have a fight? - One of many.
- Anything different about this one? I don't know.
Tell them what you told me, Owen.
This guy came by the house.
I'm done, okay.
You need to find yourself somebody else.
You think it's that easy? - I really don't care.
Dad? - What's going on? - Just go upstairs, son.
That your boy? - Yeah.
You need to go and don't come back.
Then don't give me a reason to.
Who was that? - Nobody.
What are you mixed up in? - You don't need to know.
- What the hell do you know? - You don't know what cereal I like.
- Don't start.
- So you can pretend I don't exist? - That's enough.
Mom's dead.
You can't pawn me off on her.
I said that's enough.
The next day he sent me away.
He said it would be good for me.
- He was just trying to get rid of me.
- That's not true.
Your dad loves you.
My dad doesn't love anyone or anything since mom died.
No, it just feels that way.
It's been hard on both of you.
Ever seen this man with your dad? I don't think so.
His name's Ghalib Al-Nayhan.
I've never heard of him.
What about the guy who came to your house, you seen him before? Nope.
Okay.
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Neil's blood doesn't match the blood at the house.
It might belong to the intruder.
Or the son.
What do you think? The kid didn't look hurt to me.
But his mom crashed at an intersection near their house.
And he and his father saw the whole thing.
Wow.
That's gotta be tough.
And Neil's credit card records indicate he's been a regular at a bar in Tarrytown.
If that happened to me.
I might be in there every single night.
Yeah.
He's also owes $ 145,000 for his wife's hospital bills.
And what's all this? Flight plans and transcripts from Neil's airport.
I've been trying to decipher the numbers and I cannot figure it out.
Talk about a job that will drive you to drink.
Well, if you help me, guess what.
I'll buy the martinis.
I'm worth more than that.
Those are the tail numbers we're looking for.
- Ghalib Al-Nayhan? That you? Yes.
- FBI.
- I already spoke to Homeland Security.
- I'm not a terrorist.
- Why did you go after Neil Rawlings? - What? - Last night, somebody saw a car that looks just like yours leaving Neil's house.
Now he's missing.
- I don't know where he is.
- But you were there? Ghalib, a government employee's missing and you're the primary suspect.
You keep giving Homeland Security ammunition.
Fine.
I was there.
But I went to confront him.
Because this whole mess is killing my family.
But when I got there, it all got turned around.
Rawlings was in his kitchen.
Do you hear me? My cousin was just visiting me, Rawlings.
Now, he's been disappeared somewhere.
- I was doing my job.
- What do you think I was doing? I can't deal with this right now.
All you gotta say is that we didn't do anything.
Do you know what you're putting my family through? - Neil.
- I'm done with this, Ghalib.
What the hell is going on? - You need to leave.
- I'm not going anywhere.
Hello? - It's P2571.
- I'm not going anywhere.
- I'm warning you.
- We need to talk.
- I'm warning you.
- Fix this.
- Okay, hold on.
Hold on.
- You need to fix this.
Get out.
Go.
- What are you doing? Get out! - Hey.
I got the hell out of there.
I mean, this guy was insane.
- Was there anyone else there? - Not that I saw.
- Then whose blood was all over Neil? - I don't know.
But there was a lot of it.
Anything else out of Ghalib? Nope.
It's his story and he's sticking to it.
Well, I've had no luck ID'ing the guy who was harassing Neil at his house, so You know what? I'll look into violent crimes around that area.
I spoke to the bartender at the bar where Neil drinks.
His drinking buddy is none other than Karen Murphy.
- His sister-in-law? - Mm-hm.
Yeah.
It must be hard losing a sister.
She meant the world to me.
Sometimes people cope with the loss of someone close to them in interesting ways.
I'm not sure what you mean.
Are you having an affair? Excuse me? You've been seen drinking with him on a regular basis at the Courtyard Hotel.
We get together to talk.
And then retire for a night of familial intimacy.
Bartender said you were all over each other by last call.
It just sort of happened, all right? After Kirsten died, we connected.
It helped.
Why didn't you tell us this before? Because Owen was there.
Anyway, it's over.
Neil broke it off last week.
- Karen, stop.
- No.
- What, did somebody see us? - No, no, no.
Stop.
Just stop.
Stop! I can't do this, just stop.
- What are you talking about? - This is messed up.
This whole situation's What would Kirsten say? I don't understand, what's changed? Nothing.
Nothing has changed.
That's the problem.
It's been a year and we're still Still sneaking around.
You need this as much as I do.
I need to take care of my son.
- Don't make this about him.
- It is about him, okay? Ever since Kirsten died, Owen's practically been on his own.
I'm sorry.
I need to start fixing things.
All right? This is not about you.
We argued for a while and then I had to leave to pick up Owen.
And these things that he had to fix, any idea what they were? No.
I asked.
He wouldn't tell me.
- Hey, Danny? - Yeah? Come here, please.
- What's up? - Every control tower records its radio transmissions, right? I've been listening to Neil and I found this.
Kilo 36 Omega, contact New York Tracon on 1- 1-niner-point-2.
Contacting New York Tracon on 1- 1-niner-point-2, Kilo 36 Omega.
- That sound, is that the snow storm? - Yeah.
Shh.
Now.
- Okay.
Now, do you hear that? - Yeah, it sounds different.
So one moment it's loud and then goes quiet.
So I looked into it and the time code skips.
It goes from 22 hours, two minutes to 22 hours, 12 minutes.
Hello? What's up? Nothing, I'm just Someone's trying to hide whatever happened in those 10 minutes.
- Right? - Correct, sir.
So I'm gonna find out who that is.
- All right? - All right.
Careful, brother.
So an ER doc from Windham Memorial ID'd Neil from the pictures we sent.
Did he check himself in? Nope, but he dropped off a John Doe before Ghalib saw him.
- This is Neil.
Shot of the other guy? - That's the best we have.
- His injuries? - Pretty severe.
Broken arm.
Punctured lung, shattered cheek bone.
The doctor thinks car accident.
Or this is the guy that went to Neil's house and Neil kicked his ass.
Yeah, but then why would he drop him off at the ER? Is this seat taken? I'm sorry about what happened before.
If you don't want me knowing about your life, fine but don't tell me Anne's pregnant and then act like I'm butting in.
I don't care what you do with your personal life anymore, okay? I don't.
If there was anyone that I was gonna confide in it would be you.
But I don't even know where to start.
Jack, I need you in the Tech Room.
Okay.
Sorry.
So ten minutes were missing.
Now, how did that happen? - At 11: 15 that night somebody hacked the computer to dump some files.
- Oh, let me guess, audio files, right? - Yup.
So the system is designed to record transmissions into a hard drive.
Whoever did this knew to lift the files and corrupt them.
Neil's handy with computers.
The computer creates a token table of each file.
Based on another file from that program, we can recreate the corrupted one.
When was this recorded? It was three hours before Neil had that near crash.
this is Burkhart Tower please set altimeter to 3014.
Altimeter at 3014, 08 November.
verify altitude at 1800 and ident.
Altitude: 1800, 08 November.
It's getting kind of rough up here.
Weather breaks at 1500.
- 08 November, acknowledge.
- Burkhart Tower, do you read me? Descending to 1200, but visibility is zero.
Wait, what the hell was that? We hit something.
Mayday, mayday.
We're going down.
We are going Was he in the tower by himself? I think from 10 to midnight.
So plenty of time to hack into the system and cover up the crash.
Local PD's looking for the crashed plane within 10 miles of the tower.
The John Doe Neil took into the hospital could've been on the flight.
If Neil was trying to cover that up why would he look for survivors? Well, maybe he felt guilty.
The plane that crashed is a Cessna 206, and in the transmission Neil says the plane was coming from Buffalo.
I called Buffalo and they never heard of that plane.
- Why would he lie about its origin? - Avoiding customs? Listen to this one: appears in Neil's logs every two weeks for the last six months.
Hm.
Henry Fenk.
I don't know who that is.
Nice try.
We took your fingerprints while you were under.
- Who the hell are you? FBI.
We're looking for Neil Rawlings.
I've never heard of him.
Henry, we know you're drug trafficking.
We've a warrant for your arrest.
We know that Neil was working with you.
Come on.
- It hurts.
- Who else knew that Neil was involved? Nobody.
This guy maybe? Did you send him over to threaten Neil? No drugs until you start talking.
Okay.
That's Charlie.
Him and me, we We fly the loads in together and we drive them down the coast.
There's nobody else, I swear.
- What about Neil? - He just alters the flight plans.
That's it.
It's gotta be more than that.
The guy saved your life.
Saved me? The only thing Neil saved was his own ass.
Neil? - Ah! - Neil? - I thought you were dead.
Neil? Neil.
I can't I can't move.
You gotta get me out of here, man.
You should've thought before you threatened my son.
I didn't.
It was Charlie.
Neil, Neil.
You can't leave me out here, man.
There's nothing I can do for you, man.
Get me out of here.
I'm bleeding out, you son of a bitch.
Don't leave me.
Neil! Neil, shoot me.
Shoot Shoot me.
There's a gun under my seat.
- I'm gonna die out here.
- All right.
Just shut up.
I'm gonna get you out of here.
Shut up! Just shut up.
He strapped me to a part of the wing.
The only reason Neil went back up there was to get the emergency locator.
He would have left me up there if I didn't wake up, man.
You have any idea where plane went down? The mountains.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Can I please have my morphine back? Sure.
Jack.
I got Neil's picture out to airports and brought Interpol up to speed.
Good.
Do you really think he left the country? Well, it's the next logical step.
Ever since he crashed that plane he's been covering his tracks.
Except bringing Fenk to the hospital.
Just an attack of conscience.
Which is not a good thing if you're a fugitive.
Doesn't mean he's not on the run.
Ever since this guy's wife died his whole life's just been spiraling.
He's made one bad decision after the other.
It was a question of time before he came unglued.
What about the son? - What about him? - He's been so concerned about this boy.
You think he's gonna abandon him after everything? I think he's so wrapped up in his own stuff.
- He abandoned that kid a long time ago.
- Doesn't matter how bad things get.
I will never, ever in a million years leave my child, you know? Agent Malone, the guy from NTSB has some information for you.
Okay, thank you.
I'll catch up.
- Okay, right.
Delgado.
Hey.
- Jack Malone, FBI.
- Phil Hansen, NTSB.
So, what do you make of that transmission? Well, your ATC makes a lot of odd choices.
Odd in which way? For one thing, he resets the pilot's altimeter to the wrong altitude.
The way he rerouted him seems counterintuitive to the weather that night.
Is it possible he was drunk? He doesn't sound drunk.
And with his experience, I find it hard to believe he'd make these mistakes.
So these decisions are intentional? I don't have a better explanation.
Hey, Jack.
Excuse me.
You know that Neil has been landing Now, the plane has been flying into Burkhart for over a year.
- And who was landing it before that? - ATC Ken Brown.
I think we need to talk to him again.
Omega 57 Bravo, switch to niner-7-point-2 for communication with NY Tracon.
Roger.
- Have a good night.
You didn't tell us Neil crashed a plane.
What plane? - Henry Fenk's plane.
- Who's Henry Fenk? The same guy you were landing drugs for six months ago.
What did you do to Neil Rawlings? - I didn't do anything to Neil.
- But you know who did.
Listen, if he crashed that plane intentionally they're gonna lay it off onto you.
You're gonna need protection.
You got a family, right? All right, look Fenk's people are crazy.
I tried to quit once and that Charlie guy set my RV on fire.
Why do you think I brought Neil in in the first place? Hey.
I got a call from Owen.
Water heater broke.
- Foot of water in my basement.
- Go.
I'll cover for you.
All of Kirsten's stuff was down there.
L It just It doesn't stop.
Oh, man.
Sit down for a minute.
Oh, my You know, last night, I was heading home and I ended up right at the intersection where Kirsten I mean, how am I supposed to avoid that? Can't unless you circle by Albany on your way to work.
I just sat.
I sat there at the light until someone came behind me and honked.
I was just I thought, you know, what if What if she was like 15 minutes late, you know, and the sun had already set? Or what if the driver would've worn sunglasses? It's not fair.
Just It's not fair, Neil.
No.
It's not.
Anyway, to top it off, I've gotta buy a water heater with money I don't have because I gave it to a hospital that couldn't save her.
I obviously can't change everything but I might be able to help with the money part a little better.
I laid out the whole thing for him and at first he said no.
But later he agreed.
Everything was fine.
Until he talked that plane into the ground.
Actually three days ago he came in wanting out.
Really? What do you think changed his mind? It was about his son.
I guess he got himself in trouble.
Owed some bookie 5000 bucks.
If that's true, and Neil needed the money, why'd he give up the drug smuggling? He had the money to cover the bet.
- It was about taking care of the kid.
- What did you say to him? I told him Fenk would never go for it.
But he didn't care.
He said he'd do whatever it took.
Why am I back here? What do you want from me? Your mother is deceased, right? Yeah.
My mother died when I was 16 and I was left with my father.
Really? That blows for you.
Yes, it did.
How's it working for you? I'm not really interested in some made up story about how we're alike.
After she died, whenever I tried to talk to him about anything something good, something bad all I'd ever see was the back of a newspaper.
So, what, this is supposed to make me feel like we're connected or something? - Yeah.
Yeah, because I get it.
I get how you could get in so much trouble.
And $5000 is a lot of trouble.
- Like I know what you're talking about.
- Let's say somebody had it in for you because you got yourself in a hole gambling and they had your father.
Now, I would need to know who that person was.
- He's fine.
- How do you know that? How do you know it? He He came to see me.
When? Right after I talked to you.
He told me all about the plane.
He was gonna turn himself in.
You got away with it.
- Why can't we just run? - Because.
- We can start over.
- No, we can't, Owen.
We have to face reality here.
I killed somebody, son.
- But he was a drug dealer.
He wa - It doesn't matter what he was.
I've gotta take responsibility for this, do you understand? I screwed up.
I let you down.
So now what? What, you go off to jail and what happens to me? - Karen's gonna take you.
- She can't.
- Yes, she can.
- No, she can't! - I'm in the hole again.
- What? I gave you $5000 to give them, to pay them off.
- I thought I could double it.
- How much do you owe them, Owen? - Thirteen thousand.
- Argh! I don't have that kind of money to give them, son.
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Listen, I'm gonna fix this, okay? I'll fix things.
I will, I will.
He told me to wait to hear back from him.
What was the person you borrowed money from? His name's Duke Bowden.
When was the last time you saw your father? Around 6 p.
m.
Last night.
Okay, I want you to wait here.
I'm gonna send someone in to take care of you.
All right.
Okay.
Thanks.
Viv, Hudson PD just found Neil's Jeep behind Duke Bowden's house but there's no sign of either of them.
Well, this guy's got a couple of priors for assault.
Maybe Neil tried to reason with him and it got ugly.
Well, maybe Neil paid him.
He didn't have the money.
Well, the drugs on that plane, they're worth at least 13 grand.
Yeah? Okay, thanks.
We found Bowden's car.
Nice.
Park Ranger found Duke's car about an hour ago.
Engine was still warm.
Thinking they maybe have a 90-minute head start.
How are we doing on the search? Half the party's already out there.
We're good to go.
Hey, I've located the plane.
Should approach with extreme caution.
Copy that.
We got one down.
He's dead.
If they're carrying the rest, they can't be far.
Duke Bowden.
Keep your hands where I can see them.
- I need help.
- Keep your hands where I can see them.
I'm losing blood, man.
Where's Neil Rawlings? I don't know.
- Please, I need help.
- Lf you want help, tell us where he is.
He's down there.
You should've warned me.
- I didn't see the hole.
I told you we should've done this at daybreak.
- I don't recognize this ledge.
- We're going a different way.
You trying to get me lost? Don't be an idiot.
How much longer we gonna be? I don't know, I don't usually hike through the woods with bags of dope.
Maybe that's why you brought me up here.
To help you carry this stuff and then get rid of me.
- I told you, I don't want the drugs.
- I think you do.
I crawled back up.
But he hit his head on a rock.
He wasn't moving when I left.
- Got him? - Yeah.
Rawlings.
I got Rawlings, he's alive.
Great, I'm one my way.
This is Agent Fitzgerald.
Let's have the chopper remain on standby.
Ten-four, air rescue unit standing by.
Copy that.
How you holding up? I don't know.
Your dad has a slight concussion and some frostbite but other than that he's gonna be okay.
Is he going to jail? Yeah.
This sucks.
Yes, it does.
I miss my mom.
I miss mine too.
Owen: Dad.
- Another happy ending? - Mm-hm.
Anne lost the baby.
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