No, it wouldn’t. Unless the man didn’t match Cal’s first impression of him, he’d never put his daughter at risk. Lead planes had been known to go down when they went too low and got caught in a bad microburst downdraft. Only three or four that he knew of over many years, but that didn’t sound like Henderson. It also sounded like something his wife would skin him alive for.
Cal changed frequencies on his radio and scanned the sky. Henderson’s voice directed the lead plane to alter course a hundred feet west. Who was he kidding, tweaking a jet-borne flight of retardant a hundred feet? Cal spotted Henderson’s plane far above at the Incident Air Commander altitude, well clear of the fire.
The small lead plane jinked slightly west, forcing the big tanker to bank left, then right to pick up th
