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Airframe: A Novel by Michael Crichton
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Airframe: A Novel (edition 2011)

by Michael Crichton (Author)

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7,5071001,284 (3.43)62
Fiction. Literature. Thriller. HTML: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.
… (more)
Member:pjferg888
Title:Airframe: A Novel
Authors:Michael Crichton (Author)
Info:Ballantine Books (2011), Edition: Reprint, 448 pages
Collections:Your library
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Airframe by Michael Crichton

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English (91)  Spanish (3)  Italian (2)  Dutch (1)  Japanese (1)  German (1)  All languages (99)
Showing 1-5 of 91 (next | show all)
A glorious average serial novelist, Crichton was both creative and predictable with Airframe. As someone who is not well versed in avionics or the inner workings of aircraft, I appreciated him having a character that basically had to follow the main character around and have everything explained to him in the most basic of language, yet still be completely relevant to the story. The best part was, though it was painfully obvious what he was doing, it didn't feel like it was forced. The character was plausibly ignorant, at least on the surface, in the same way that the vast majority of the world is of how airplanes work.

As for predictable, I don't want to spoil it, but I will say that a good portion of it, though only mildly relevant to the story line itself, is blatantly obvious from the beginning, especially when different characters start mentioning tension between two particular elements in the story. In the end, it really doesn't end up being that important, although it does explain why certain characters pushed certain plausibilities as the cause for the in air incident that the book is based around.

In the end, it was a relatively mindless, predictable, quick read. It's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I can't say it'd be the first book that comes to mind as a "must read". ( )
  cebellol | Nov 8, 2024 |
Dit boek heb ik niet in de engelse, maar in de nederlandse versie
  Esk_boeken | Oct 7, 2024 |
Very technical, especially at the start. Which I really like. But it's not what I'm looking for when I want to read a thriller. So... how to rate it?

Well, also it's kind of a letdown at the end, but it is well-written enough. ( )
  cwebb | Sep 23, 2024 |
3.5 Stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Look, I get and agree with some of the criticisms, particularly of the shallow characters. But I actually really love what a lot of people disliked, namely the insane amount of DETAIL about airplanes. I've never considered myself someone who is into airplanes. At all. But I do love to learn, and I have a soft spot for deep dives into obscure topics that don't seem interesting on the surface (but totally are).

This book really hit the spot on that front, plus I enjoyed the general mystery (which I did figure out the thrust of before the end, yay me!) and the fast-paced writing.

I was confused about 2 things that happened.

Content wise: There was a fair bit of taking the Lord's name in vain, which I don't appreciate in my reading. There were two scenes of fornication, nothing graphic was "shown", but the scenes were entirely pointless in my view and the novel gained nothing by including them. ( )
  stefanielozinski | Aug 17, 2024 |
There are a lot of naysayers here, but I really liked this book. It's a thriller novel with suitably short chapters about the problems of an aircraft company, Norton, as it tries to deal with the media, business partners, engineering problems, the mysterious provenance of an accident, and many others. It doesn't sound immediately enticing, but I enjoyed this book more than Sphere - it felt somehow more tangible and the characters more convincing.

This was not actually my first read, but the last time was sufficiently long ago that I couldn't remember any plot details. The story is largely presented from the viewpoints of two characters - Casey Singleton, a press officer for Norton tasked along with others with finding out what happened on a flight incident which left many passengers injured and a few killed, and Jennifer Malone, reporter for Newsline, looking to tear apart Norton for a 15 minute story. Events unfold and Crichton is able to push his message that the media is getting too powerful, while maintaining tension and keeping me awake (I read this in one sitting!) ( )
  Zedseayou | Jan 30, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 91 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (5 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Crichton, Michaelprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bertante, P.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bertante, PaolaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brown, BlairReadersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Carlsen, JorunnOvers.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ciocchini, M. EugeniaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kankaanpää, JaakkoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Messadié, GeraldTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
van Velzen, MarjoleinTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Crichton bevestigt definitief zijn briljante gevoel voor timing....de bittere overlevingsstrijd in de vliegtuigindustrie sluit naadloos aan op het voorpaginanieuws.
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For Sonny Mehta
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Emily Jansen sighed in relief.
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Die krengen wegen tweehonderdvijftig ton, vliegen in drie vluchten de wereld rond en vervoeren passagiers op een comfortabeler en veiliger manier dan welk voertuig dan ook in de geschiedenis der mensheid. En wilden jullie ons nou echt vertellen hoe we ons werk beter kunnen doen? Wilden jullie beweren dat jullie er ook maar iets van weten? Volgens mij willen jullie alleen maar onrust zaaien, om wat voor persoonlijke reden dan ook. (Luchtvaartlegende Charley Norton (78) tijdens een interview na een vliegtuigongeluk in 1970)
Het ironische van het informatietijdperk is dat het een nieuw soort aanzien verleend heeft aan ongefundeerde meningen. (Verslaggever John Lawton (68) in een toespraak tot de American Association of Broadcast Journalists in 1995.)
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Fiction. Literature. Thriller. HTML: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.

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CAUTION- SPOILER ALERT - wikipedia.com- 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.

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