I’ve always been drawn to aviation—maybe because I had an uncle once who flew bombing missions in the Pacific during World War II, crash-landed in New Guinea, and somehow made it back alive. He seldom spoke of the incident, but to the rest of the family he was always a pilot.
I’m not a pilot. I never became one (just as Kramer in Seinfeld never became a banker) but that didn’t keep me away from airports—even dragging my family there incessantly in years past—less so these days when heightened security measures make it difficult to find a location to watch take-offs and landings. But of course aviation is often linked to disasters, and the piece previewed here involves one of them: the crash of American 191 in Chicago, May, 1979. Though the story takes place today, its seed grew from that event.
The link below will take you to my website where you can download an early chapter. I’d love to hear what you think.