| Airframe | |
|---|---|
 First edition cover |
|
| Author | Michael Crichton |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Techno-thriller, Science fiction |
| Publisher | Knopf |
| Publication date | 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 393 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0679446486 |
| OCLC Number | 35723547 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.54 21 |
| LC Classification | PS3553.R48 A77 1996 |
| Preceded by | The Lost World |
| Followed by | Timeline |
Airframe is a novel by Michael Crichton, first published in hardcover in 1996 by Knopf and as a paperback 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.
Contents |
Plot summary
The novel opens aboard Hong Kong based Transpacific Airlines flight 545, (a Norton Aircraft-manufactured N-22), inbound to Denver. An incident occurs about a half hour off the California coastline and the pilot requests an emergency landing at Los Angeles stating that the plane encountered "severe turbulence" in midflight. The pilot gives air traffic control conflicting information regarding the type and severity of injuries, but does inform them that crew members were hurt and "three passengers are dead".
The incident seems inexplicable. The N-22 is a plane with an excellent safety record, and the pilot is highly trained, ruling out the possibility of human error. Passengers and flight crew give concurring accounts of the circumstances of the disaster, and the most likely explanation turns out to be a technical problem that was fixed years ago.
The accident takes place at a bad time for Norton Aircraft. Norton is on the verge of concluding an eight-billion-dollar sale of N-22 aircraft to the Chinese government. Should the N-22's safety record be questioned, the Chinese government might cancel the sale. Norton, already hit hard by the economic recession, desperately needs the deal to go through so the company can survive. With only a week left until the deal is signed, Casey Singleton, a vice-president for Norton Aircraft in charge of the Quality Assurance Incident Review Team, must find out what happened on the plane while dealing with disgruntled union workers.
A videotape showing footage of the incident appears on CNN, where it is seen by the producer of Newsline, a television news magazine. Hoping for her own story, the producer attempts to discredit Casey and Norton Aircraft.
Eventually, after a test flight was done to prove Casey's theory, the cause of the disaster turns out to be a combination of faulty and counterfeit parts and human error. While in flight, the airplane's computer and safety systems worked perfectly, detected the fault, and attempted to automatically correct the plane to compensate. The pilot had let his son, also a pilot, take the controls. Just before the incident, while the father was out of the cockpit, an error was detected and the autopilot attempted to engage. The son, being less experienced and not certified for the N-22, panicked and tried repeatedly to fly against the autopilot, causing the catastrophic accident.
The airline attempts to cover up the story, but due to Casey's persistence the whole situation is brought to light. The sale to China goes through and the company remains in operation.
Characters in "Airframe"
- Casey Singleton – a Quality assurance vice-president
- Bob Richman – Casey Singleton's assistant
- John Marder – Chief Operating Officer
- Harold Edgarton – President of Norton Aircraft
- Dick Shenk – Segment Organizer for Newsline
- Marty Reardon – Interviewer for Newsline
- Jennifer Malone – Segment Producer for Newsline
- Doug Doherty – Structure and Mechanical
- Nguyen Van Trung – Avionics
- Ken Burne – Powerplant
- Ron Smith – Electrical
- Mike Lee – Carrier Representative for TransPacific Airlines
- Barbara Ross – IRT Secretary
Major themes
Air safety procedures are a central theme in the novel. Crichton challenges public perception of air safety and how the blame for accidents sometimes gets directed at the wrong party.
Another central theme, which compounds the issue mentioned above, 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. Despite malfunctions due to improper maintenance the plane itself was functional. The incident was a result of human error by an insufficiently trained pilot.
References to reality
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. He also draws from real life incidents to flesh out the story. For instance the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 and its causes are accurately described (as per knowledge of the time) in the novel.
The main accident described in the novel resembles two real-life incidents:
- On March 23, 1994 Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310-304, 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 the plane suffered its drop.
- The violent oscillations, the issue with the flap/slat handle becoming dislodged, and the importance of pilot training in order to respond properly to the characteristics of a specific aircraft type are closely modeled on the 1993 accident aboard China Eastern Flight 583. [1]
Reception
Reviews for the novel were mostly positive.
The New York Times's Christopher Lehmann-Haupt said of Airframe, "By playing hide and seek with his plot, Mr. Crichton writes as if he were an engineer and his readers were all outsiders. Yet at the same time, he has taken on a complex subject in Airframe and made its subtleties dramatically vivid."[1]
References
External links
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