Airframe
Airframe [ ˈɛɹˌfɹeɪm ] is a novel by Michael Crichton that was published in 1996 .
As Airframe (frame of English: frame) is referred to in the aircraft industry to fully assembled fuselage section of an aircraft including all technical installations. However, the title is also a play on words with the English phrase: to frame somebody (= to trick someone).
action
The action is driven as a business crime and takes place in the American-Asian economic area of the present. The story is based on a true incident that was projected into a fictional plot.
The novel is about a large-capacity plane crash over the Pacific Ocean . Casey Singleton, head of production control at the aircraft manufacturer in the US , is under high pressure to find out within a few days why this incident resulted in three deaths and forty injuries. Norton Aircraft is in danger of losing an eight billion dollar contract with the Chinese government if Casey cannot prove that the aircraft's design was technically flawless.
In addition, the notorious television program “Newsline” learned of the accident and received a video from an anonymous source showing the incident. For the media, the incident can clearly be traced back to the aircraft manufacturer's fault. The journalist Jennifer Malone, who wants to make a name for herself in the campaign against the allegedly unsafe aircraft, later flies on a test flight and learns that the reason for the incident given by the press turns out to be false.
Towards the end it becomes known that the experienced captain John Zhen Chang let his son fly for a few minutes, who panicked at a minor technical defect caused by counterfeit spare parts , approached the autopilot and thus provoked a series of dive flights. This incident is similar to the accident on Aeroflot Flight 593 in 1994.
background
The novel criticizes the subjective flood of information from the mass media to which the “normal” citizen is exposed on a daily basis. Crichton raised the political issue of freedom of the press . He raises the question of whether the basic right of freedom of the press has unrestricted advantages or also involves dangers. The misinformation conveyed in the media threatens the company in Crichton's novel with a great economic loss and as a consequence bankruptcy - and not least the loss of many jobs. The hostility of the European licensing authorities towards American aircraft assumed in the book reflects the competition between Boeing and Airbus and the US and European aerospace industry in general , which has become a political issue .
With his work, the author also wants to provide information about the safety of air traffic . It represents the airplane as the safest means of transport from a statistical point of view .
literature
- Michael Crichton: Airframe (English edition, hardback). Knopf, 1996, ISBN 0-679-44648-6
- Michael Crichton: Airframe (German edition, paperback). Goldmann, 1999, ISBN 3-442-44263-X
Reviews
- Michael Crichton's "Airframe": The Divining Rodger , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 6, 1997, No. 4 / page 23
- Thomas Harbach: Michael Crichton: Airframe on SF-radio.net
- Christopher Lehmann-Haupt: A Thriller Not to Carry On Your Next Plane Trip , New York Times , December 5, 1996
- Tom Shone: Moving Parts , New York Times, December 15, 1996
Web links
- http://www.crichton-official.com/airframe/ - Official page for the book (English)