Airframe (novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Hardback edition cover |
|
| Author | Michael Crichton |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Techno-thriller novel |
| Publisher | Century Books & Ballantine Books |
| Released | 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 352 pp (Paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-679-44648-6 (Hardback edition) |
Airframe is a novel by Michael Crichton, first published in hardback edition in 1996 and as a paperback edition in 1997 by Ballantine Books. The plot follows Casey Singleton, a quality assurance vice-president at the fictional aerospace manufacturer Norton Aircraft, as she investigates an in-flight accident aboard a Norton-manufactured airliner that leaves three passengers dead and fifty-six injured.
In Airframe as in most of his novels, Crichton uses the false document literary device, presenting numerous technical documents to create a sense of authenticity. Several real-life incidents are also explored; the accident itself is closely modeled on a 1993 accident aboard a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Transpacific Airlines flight 545 encounters "severe turbulence" in midflight, and makes an emergency landing at Los Angeles with three dead passengers and many more wounded. The reason for the accident is a mystery: the airplane is a Norton Aircraft-manufactured N-22, a design with an excellent safety record, and the pilot is highly experienced and skilled, ruling out the possibility of human error. Passengers, flight crew, and the pilot all give conflicting accounts of the reason for the disaster, and the most likely explanation turns out to be a technical problem that was fixed years ago.
The accident takes place at the worst possible time: Norton Airlines is on the verge of concluding an eight-billion-dollar sale of N-22 aircraft to the Chinese government. Should the safety record of the N-22 be questioned, the Chinese government might cancel the sale, and Norton, already hit hard by the recession, desperately needs the deal to survive. With only a week left till the deal is signed, Casey Singleton is under immense pressure to discover the true reason for the accident and vindicate the N-22 design.
Eventually, the cause of the disaster turned out to be a combination of faulty parts and human error. While in flight, the airplane's computer and safety systems worked perfectly and detected the faulty part and attempted to automatically correct the plane to compensate. Unfortunately, the pilot had left the cockpit so that his son could have a chance to fly the plane. The son, being far less experienced than his father, panicked and attempted to fly against the plane's autopilot, causing the catastrophic accident. Embarrassed by the pilot's gross negligence, the Chinese attempted to cover up the entire incident by hiding the entire flight crew. Once these facts came to light, Norton Aircraft's reputation is saved and the deal with the Chinese goes through.
[edit] Characters in "Airframe"
- Casey Singleton – a quality assurance vice-president
- Doug Doherty – structural and mechanical engineer
- Nguyen Van Trung – avionics engineer
- Kenny Burne – powerplant engineer
- Ron Smith – electrical engineer
- Mike Lee – carrier representative
- Barbara Ross – IRT secretary
- John Marder – CEO of Norton
- Harold Edgarton – president of Norton
- Bob Richman – new assistant to Casey Singleton
- Jennifer Malone – segment producer for Newsline
[edit] Major themes
Airline safety procedures are a central theme in the novel, and facts and statistics from real-world accidents are often used to flesh out the story. For example, the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 and its causes are accurately described in the novel. The book repeatedly stresses the safety and reliability of modern commercial passenger aircraft, and challenges the public perception of aircraft safety.
Another central theme is investigative journalism, and the consequences when sensational media agencies distort the truth to produce a better-selling story.
The book also continues Crichton's overall theme of the failure of humans in human-machine interaction. The plane itself worked perfectly, and had the pilot known how to react, the accident would never have happened. Unfortunately, the main pilot let his less-experienced son fly the plane with tragic results. This is probably inspired by a real life accident of Aeroflot Flight 593. On March 23, 1994 an Aeroflot Airbus A310-300, flying from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) to Hong Kong's former Hong Kong international airport (Kai Tak Airport), crashed into a hillside in Siberia. All 75 passengers and crew were killed. The flight cockpit voice recorder revealed that the pilot's 15-year-old son had been at the controls at the time.
[edit] Trivia
In exploring the culpability of an airframe manufacturer in an engine mishap, Michael Crichton foreshadows the controversy that would occur in 2000 concerning the failure of Firestone tires on Ford Explorer SUVs.
A brief excerpt:
"We build the plane, and then install the brand of engine the customer selects. Just the way you can put any one of several brands of tires on your car. But if Michelin makes a batch of bad tires, and they blow out, that's not Ford's fault. If you let your tires go bald and get in an accident, that's not Ford's fault. And it's exactly the same with us."
