Opening with a grisly crash site scene, Terminal Event follows National Transportation Safety Board investigator Joe Durant on his hunt for clues. His search is obsessive: his wife was on the plane and died in the crash. Desperate to find answers for his devastated fifteen-year-old daughter, Sarah, Durant sets out to prove that the aircraft was destroyed by an evil bomber. With others determined to blame the crash on pilot error, Durant painstakingly searches through the tiny metal fragments, twisted chunks of aluminum, scattered body parts, and charred bits of flesh and bone that will point him to the killer. His pursuit turns frantic when the bomber sends the investigators a taunting "signature" - a fragment of the same kind of metal used in the explosive device, something only the bomber would know - and promises to bring down another plane in ten days. Durant races to find the bomber before he can strike again.