How much time do we have? I'm a slow writer...
So far, I'm confused in the first couple paragraphs - why was the first flight May 3 and second May 4? Was there an overnight wait between flights?
"The story was shocking, but equally shocking was the utter dearth of coverage on it. "
The lack of coverage seems to me "surprising", more than "shocking", and certainly not equal in shockitude to the story.