.
It was Ken , on the radiophone , calling from Taleomey River.
His voice , a monotone but spiced with an undertone of fear , related the story ....
The meeting had gone well up North in Kimsquit and the cantankerous old superintendant and Walter came to an agreement but still , nothing changed. And Bud , another road building company owner took the oppurtunity to get home on a Saturday and happily boarded for the trip to Taleomey where Walter was to be dropped and fuel taken on.
We had built a fuel shed with a barrel pump on one side for the Jet fuel and another on the opposite side for avgas. About a dozen or so barrells are stored inside and we had appropriate grounding straps and "no smoking" signs. Each pump had a go/no go filter ... we spared no expense.
Ken fueled while Walter and Bud were having quite a discussion while Walter changed the pump to another barrel and at the same time , Denise and her mum , Mrs W , walked away up the strip for a cigarette and returned. Denise was eager to learn her new job and went into the shed and looked about. She came back outside and said to Ken , "Hey this may sound like a dumb question , but does the Navajo take Jet fuel?"
Ken froze and released the lever. Pale and ashen he went into the shed and there it was , the last barrel had been Jet B.
You see the barrels are coloured blue , both Jet and avgas. No colour difference at all. Tiny stencilled white lettering is the only way to determine which type of fuel.
Whoever loaded the drums into the shed had not sorted them.
So there we were with two drums of Jet B in the Navajo ,
I had come within an atom of losing the whole family , a pilot and another CEO.
A simple question had turned the tide on fate