The new jet engine has been rigorously tested. It's supposed to be crash-proof. Then a huge passenger plane equipped with the new engines goes down in flames at Dulles International Airport. More than three hundred people die horribly. Steve Pace is a reporter for the Washington Chronicle, specializing in airline disasters. Years ago he won a Pulitzer for his work, but he's fallen on hard times since then. Alcohol and indifference have nearly destroyed his career and his life, until the carnage at Dulles snaps him out of his malaise. Pace is shocked by the official explanation far the crash. According to the National Transportation Safety Board report, the disaster was caused by a bird flying into the jet's intake. Pace knows better: the plane's engines were specially designed to withstand a strike impact. Something is being concealed. The evidence doesn't add up. Regardless of the risks, Pace digs into the NTSB investigation, prods government and industry officials alike, squeezes every source for inside information. He's hot on the trail of the Big Story, the one that will spawn front page headlines, a new Pulitzer, maybe a bestselling book. But the closer he gets to the truth, the faster his friends and sources begin to die - and Pace himself becomes the target of a hit squad. How far will Steve Pace go to reveal the truth?