Airframe

by Michael Crichton

Book Overview

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, and Sphere comes this extraordinary thriller about airline safety, business intrigue, and a deadly cover-up. "The pacing is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679446486
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Knopf
• Length: 351 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.5" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating information about airplanes along with leading story

I really enjoyed all the information about airplanes in this book it is fascinating and makes you feel much safer flying then you did previously. It gives you a great appreciation for the talent that it takes to not only write a book like this but to build an airplane. What a Wonderful World and what brilliant people are in it.

Welcome aboard a carefully constructed AIRFRAME

AIRFRAME. Ask anyone in aviation and they all say the same thing: an accident is not an isolated event. It is the end result of a series of seemingly unrelated events, often unrelated in time, that converge in one terrifying moment. AIRFRAME is such a book. It begins with an accident. No, better, let's use the investigative term, an 'event'. After all, most everyone survived, the plane survived, but will the plane's manufacturer survive? The 'event' occurs within a mechanical entity, an airplane, an airframe. The flight data recorder, the passenger reports, the damage reports all point to a manufactured defect. Bad for the plane's market future. Bad for the future of those responsible for its manufacture. Bad for the manfacturer's future. The crew? Yes, of course they reported the `event', then quickly hopped the next flight back to the sanctuary of their base of foreign origin. But what is that fleeting image on a passenger's camera? Who was standing in the plane's galley at that awful moment in flight? And will the court of public opinion reverse its judgment, considering the court room reporter is a judgmental press? Queasy about boarding an aircraft, are we? Relax. You are about to enter a carefully constructed AIRFRAME. Reviewed by: Charles Dusenbury, author MOLASBA and COMPUTER BRAIN, on Kindle.

The Mystery of the Flight Incident

A charter is going from Hong Kong to Denver. Suddenly there is a problem, the plane dives and passengers are discomforted. TPA 545 makes an emergency landing in Los Angeles for medical care. Many foreign charter carriers did not match the rigorous safety standards of domestic scheduled carriers. The FAA investigates these "incidents". Casey Singleton, a single mom, works in Quality Assurance for Norton Aircraft. QA dealt in problems in customer support. Casey has a new assistant who has to be educated and gently handled. Casey explains the very high standards needed for aircraft ("Bldg 64 6:45 am"). The "War Room 7:01 am" chapter shows how problems are investigated. There is a big order that will save the company, but only if this problem can be explained by next week! The problem appears to be "severe pitch oscillations" which could be caused by "uncommanded slats deployment". The expert says it could not be pilot error because that pilot was superb; it had to be a mechanical problem ("Bldg 202/FSIM 7:59 am"). [Is this a clue?] Inspection reveals a non-standard part that could have caused the malfunction ("Hangar 5 9:40 am"). Is the rumor about the wing offset just a projection of fears? Why do the media censor information about "Cheapskate Airlines", a stock scam similar to the then current "high-tech" stocks? Do reporters write with a presumption of guilt to make their subjects look silly or foolish? Has deregulation resulted in using aircraft beyond their expected life ("Proof Test 10:19 am")? It takes regulations to provide safety, not a "free market". Every part on an aircraft has a paper history for documentation. Casey finds the repair record ("Norton QA 12:30 pm"), and the seemingly correct paper. The "Newsline/New York 1:54 pm" chapter explains the working of television news stories. More counterfeit parts are found (which don't meet the high standards required). The "Outside Norton 11:10 am" chapter explains how news stories are created for sensationalism. Note the funding source for the "Institute for Aviation Research". See the reporter asking questions to cause an emotional reaction. The video camera recorded a sound like the slats deploying. Television news is not required to present the other side of an issue. The "Norton QA 11:50 am" chapter explains the trick used in interviews to get a reaction. The hidden agenda comes out ("Bldg 64 3:01 pm"). How difficult is it to film a test flight ("War Room 4:20 pm")? On Saturday morning the plane is taken up for a test flight, with two passengers. The flight recreates the incident successfully to rule out any "design flaw". Then the mystery is solved. The Aircraft Incident Report is written in language that means little to the general public. The last chapter contains the news reports that end this story. These items conceal more than they reveal. The phrase "deep integrity" suggests a well-hidden quality. This novel is educational in telling about the tricks played by any award-winning

Punto crítico

Una historia muy interesante sobre los problemas de las compañias aeronauticas, y las luchas internas, con muchos intereses por medio. Y luego la ferocidad que se mueven los medios de comunicación por caursar miedo a todo el mundo sin hacer caso a los echos.

"Just One More Page..."

I love this book! Michael Crichton writes his books in such a way that they are near impossible to put down. This is accomplished primarily by the fact that the story never gets boring, and he usually ends chapters on a cliffhanger note, thus nearly forcing you to turn the page. This applies not only to Airframe, but all of Crichton's book.Also, his documentary approach to the novel of suspsense (complete with a very posh looking intro) will leaving you wondering whether or not the story really happened, such is the level of detail. It's a shame that this wasn't made into a movie as it seems more fit to be one than some of the other Crichton ones that they've made into movies (Rising Sun, Eaters of The Dead (13th Warrior). I can gurantee one thing, after reading this book you'll either never worry about riding an airplane again, as the safety measures of them are recounted in this book so painstakingly detailed, or you'll never fly in one again!

The best Crichton's ever written

This is absolutely my favourite book by Michael Crichton. He may have a medical degree, but he writes about journalism, the media and politics with much more insight than the condescending attitudes of his scientist characters. This book is Crichton at his best--backed up, as ever, by extensive research into the topic, a cast of hugely realistic characters to love and love to hate, and, of course, an intriguing mystery thrown in to boot. Casey Singleton is a classic Crichton heroine--world-weary, wise, and an expert in her field, she reminds me of Sarah Harding from "The Lost World", except Casey has a REAL job. The realism of the plot is one of the main factors in making this one of Crichton's best books--all of this could really happen. I've seen other reviewers bellyache about the mundaneness of the final solution to the aircrash, but isn't that the most chilling note to the whole plot? Just how easily all this chaos was caused? Sleazy journalists, wise colleagues, a comical team of experts called in to exammine the aircraft, and at the centre of it all Casey Singleton, trying to save the company and at the same time trying to stop herself becoming the scapegoat to be sacrificed to the media: for me, this makes a brilliant novel. The final pages will blur by--and when you sit back with a sigh of relief, the underplayed conclusion to this book behind you, there is the final message: Don't believe everything you read in the papers. Well, I said it was realistically underplayed, didn't I?