Crash-landing!!!. Review on Airframe - Michael Crichton

I was scanning through the books in the lower shelf of the library and suddenly THUD...something hit my shoulder and fell beside me...The girl next to me was trying to get a book at the topmost shelf and in the process dropped two books, of which one landed on me.

Imagine, one moment, I was wondering what book to take and the next moment a book falls from above right into my lap(ok...shoulder,close enough).I thought to myself that probably I was destined to read this book. I just glanced at the book., Michael Crichton's Airframe.I had read Michael Crichton's Disclosure and liked it.

So thatz it,this is destiny alright...

Well, my tryst with destiny was a major disappointment, coz this book is simply BORING. The story goes like this..

The air traffic control gets a call from the jet plane TPA 545 that it has experienced turbulence and needs an emergency landing. When it finally does land, it is seen that 3 people are dead and many injured. The airframes are made by Norton Aircrafts , which has an amazing record for making safe planes. The company is about to make an important deal with China and simply cannot have their image tarnished. They are convinced that their planes are safe. So can it be the pilot's fault? No way, if one of the best and most experienced pilots was on board...So, what actually happened?? Casey Singleton, quality assurance rep of Norton, is appointed to find out what went wrong and to deal with the press.The book also tries to point out how the television media tries to ''sensationalize'' the news rather than find out what really happened.

The problem with the book is that

1: It's just tooo technical. Reading this book gives you a feeling of sitting in a lecture hall.

2:If you are a keen observer, you can very easily guess the plot, well before the ending.

3: After reading the book you'll ask yourself,

''that's it???''

It does have a few highs.

1: The book is divided into many small chapters (each say,1 or 2 pages) making it easier to read.:-)

2:U'll learn lot of technical stuff like ''the black box'' is actually the Flight data recorder

and QAR stands for Quick Access Recorder (ok, I'll stop showing off) and so on...

3:The part where Casey Singleton handles a media reporter when he tries to put words into her mouth is quite interesting.

After reading this book I've learnt a few things...

1:Never trust a book that gives bruises to u'r shoulder (alright...no bruises...I'm exaggerating!!)

2:Always read reviews from mouthshut.com before getting something coz there was a review by Sensiva recommending us not read the book.

Hey, but I'm new here and am getting wiser everyday!!!