From School Library Journal
YA. Crichton's newest novel is billed as a "technical thriller" but the technology seems to outweigh the thrills. Casey Singleton is called upon to lead the investigation of the near air disaster of Flight 545. The pilot landed the plane safely but three passengers were killed. All of the evidence is conflicting?the pilot attributed the incident to turbulence but there was none. The flight attendant says the pilot fought the autocontrol but he didn't. What really happened to this flight? As Casey tries to piece the puzzle together, a national TV network plans an expose of the accident. The program is not focused on the truth but rather on discrediting the airline. Casey's race against time is further complicated when attempts are made on her life. Airframe is full of technical jargon and explanations of how airplanes fly and why they sometimes don't. Crichton incorporates enough suspense to keep readers going but a degree in engineering would be helpful in understanding this novel.?Katherine Fitch, Lake Braddock Middle School, Burke, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
On its way over the Pacific, a Chinese charter flight from Hong Kong to Denver "porpoises," or steeply dives and climbs in rapid succession, for two minutes without warning. This "incident" produces plenty of lost lunches--and 3 (eventually 4) deaths and 56 injuries. Norton Aircraft, maker of the plane's airframe (i.e., fuselage, tail, and wing), has to find out what happened and why pronto or lose a huge sale of the same model to China--and have to pink-slip all its employees, sending ripples throughout the economy as subcontractors do likewise. Norton VP Casey Singleton is point person for the investigation: she has to stay on top of the overall inquiry and keep the top brass and the media apprised of progress. Making her job harder is the chief operating officer, chafing over not being company president and friendly as a snapping turtle, anyway; a pesky--and mysterious--new "assistant" ; labor unrest over rumors that Norton will let the Chinese assemble the wings (the most labor-intensive part of plane building) as part of the sale; and a careless-with-the-truth TV producer eager to expose a flying death trap. Loading it with interesting detail on airliner construction, aerodynamics, the international trade in commercial aircraft, and air safety, Crichton produces a taut, absorbing suspenser, anyway. Knopf has ordered a two million^-copy first printing. Order heavily; they'll all circulate, deservedly. Ray Olson
Review
Impressing the boss is one of the great unacknowledged subjects of the modern-day thriller ... in Mr. Crichton's books it reaches a truly ruthless pitch: his fiction is one long efficiency drive. -- The New York Times Book Review, Tom Shone
It's a tribute to Crichton's talents that the theme of airplane safety and frame construction turns into a riveting thriller which is so hard to put down. Even those used to traditional airplane disaster stories will relish the different atmosphere here, which focuses on a plane's problems and the underlying politics affecting an entire plane building company's corporate structure and coworker relationships. A savvy female investigator finds her job and very life on the line as she struggles against time to uncover the truth about a puzzling plane disaster. -- Midwest Book Review
From the Inside Flap
Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane. . . .
At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner bound from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation.
AIRFRAME is nonstop reading: the extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of compelling interest that has been a Crichton landmark since The Andromeda Strain.
About the Author
Michael Crichton was born in Chicago and was graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University. At twenty-three, Crichton was a visiting lecturer in anthropology at Cambridge University, England. Upon his return to the States, Crichton began training as a doctor, and was graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1969. He paid his way through medical school by writing pseudonymous thrillers, one of which (A Case of Need, 1968) won an Edgar Award. By the time he graduated, Crichton had already written a bestseller (The Andromeda Strain, 1969) and sold it to Hollywood. He then pursued postgraduate studies at the Salk Institute in California before taking up writing full time.
Crichton has written ten novels -- The Andromeda Strain, 1969; The Terminal Man, 1972; The Great Train Robbery, 1975; Eaters of the Dead, 1976; Congo, 1980; Sphere, 1987; Jurassic Park, 1990; Rising Sun, 1992; Disclosure, 1994; and The Lost World, 1995 -- each of which displays an intimate knowledge of a different, specialist subject, among them primatology, neurobiology, biophysics, international economics, Nordic history and genetics. He has directed six movies, including Westworld, Coma, and The Great Train Robbery, and is the creator of the hit television series ER (which won eight emmys in 1995). He is a computer expert who wrote one of the first books about information technology (Electronic Life, 1983); he has run a software company; he has designed a computer game called Amazon; is a committed collector of modern art and the author of a learned study on Jasper Johns (Jasper Johns, 1977). His other works of nonfiction include Five Patients: The Hospital Explained, 1970, and Travels, 1988. Crichton's novels have been translated into twenty-four languages; eight of his novels have been made into films, including Jurassic Park, one of the most successful films in motion picture history.
Michael Crichton is married and lives in Los Angeles.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Airframe Chapter 3
LAX
5:57 a.m.
Daniel Greene was the duty officer at the FAA Flight Standards District Office on Imperial Highway, half a mile from LAX. The local FSDOs--or Fizdos, as they were called--supervised the flight operations of commercial carriers, checking everything from aircraft maintenance to pilot training. Greene had come in early to clear the paper off his desk; his secretary had quit the week before, and the office manager refused to replace her, citing orders from Washington to absorb attrition. So now Greene went to work, muttering. Congress was slashing the FAA budget, telling them to do more with less, pretending the problem was productivity and not workload. But passenger traffic was up four percent a year, and the commercial fleet wasn't getting younger. The combination made for a lot more work on the ground. Of course, the FSDOs weren't the only ones who were strapped. Even the NTSB was broke; the Safety Board only got a million dollars a year for aircraft accidents, and--
The red phone on his desk rang, the emergency line. He picked it up; it was a woman at traffic control.
"We've just been informed of an incident on an inbound foreign carrier," she said.
"Uh-huh." Greene reached for a notepad. "Incident" had a specific meaning to the FAA, referring to the lower category of flight problems that carriers were required to report. "Accidents" involved deaths or structural damage to the aircraft and were always serious, but with incidents, you never knew. "Go ahead."
"It's TransPacific Flight 545, incoming from Hong Kong to Denver. Pilot's requested emergency landing at LAX. Says they encountered turbulence during flight."
"Is the plane airworthy?"
"They say it is," Levine said. "They've got injuries, and they've requested forty ambulances."
"Forty?"
"They've also got two stiffs."
"Great." Greene got up from his desk. "When's it due in?"
"Eighteen minutes."
"Eighteen minutes--Jeez, why am I getting this so late?"
"Hey, the captain just told us, we're telling you. I've notified EMS and alerted the fire crews."
"Fire crews? I thought you said the plane's okay."
"Who knows?" the woman said. "The pilot is not making much sense. Sounds like he might be in shock. We hand off to the tower in seven minutes."
"Okay," Greene said. "I'm on my way."
He grabbed his badge and his cell phone and went out the door. As he passed Karen, the receptionist, he said, "Have we got anybody at the international terminal?"
"Kevin's there."
"Beep him," Greene said. "Tell him to get on TPA 545, inbound Hong Kong, landing in fifteen. Tell him to stay at the gate--and don't let the flight crew leave."
"Got it," she said, reaching for the phone.
Greene roared down Sepulveda Boulevard toward the airport. Just before the highway ran beneath the runway, he looked up and saw the big TransPacific Airlines widebody, identifiable by its bright yellow tail insignia, taxiing toward the gate. TransPacific was a Hong Kong-based charter carrier. Most of the problems the FAA had with foreign airlines occurred with charters. Many were low-budget operators that didn't match the rigorous safety standards of the scheduled carriers. But TransPacific had an excellent reputation.
At least the bird was on the ground, Greene thought. And he couldn't see any structural damage to the widebody. The plane was an N-22, built by Norton Aircraft in Burbank. The plane had been in revenue service five years, with an enviable dispatch and safety record.
Greene stepped on the gas and rushed into the tunnel, passing beneath the giant aircraft.
He sprinted through the international building. Through the windows, he saw the TransPacific jet pulled up to the gate, and the ambulances lined up on the concrete below. The first of them was already driving out, its siren whining.
Greene came to the gate, flashed his badge, and ran down the ramp. Passengers were disembarking, pale and frightened. Many limped, their clothes torn and bloody. On each side of the ramp, paramedics clustered around the injured.
As he neared the plane, the nauseating odor of vomit grew stronger. A frightened TransPac stewardess pushed him back at the door, chattering at him rapidly in Chinese. He showed her his badge and said, "FAA! Official business! FAA!" The stewardess stepped back, and Greene slid past a mother clutching an infant and stepped into the plane.
He looked at the interior, and stopped. "Oh my God," he said softly. "What happened to this plane?"
