Title The Mystery of Flight 2222
Author Thomas Neviaser
Genre Mystery, Suspense, Survivor Stories
Book Blurb
Two strangers meet while seated together on a long-distance air flight. The more seasoned of the two creates a game to pass the time. They choose seven passengers and proceed to guess their names, age, occupation, marital status, and personality. Later, they are informed of severe mechanical problems disabling the plane, leading to a crash into the sea. They survive along with only seven other passengers, incredibly the seven people from their game. The subsequent prolonged and horrifying adventure in a raft presents many obstacles to their survival including sharks, severe weather, death, hunger, thirst, declining physical and mental health, paranoia, and pirates of the high seas. Their long-awaited rescue from the ravages of the sea is just the beginning of their trip to Hell and back.
Excerpt
Captain Swanson and Crenshaw were comfortably seated while Jane Hodges was checking her records of the flight. The big Airbus was on autopilot, and it was time for each to take time out of the cockpit for a bathroom break, a drink, and something to munch on. Billy took the first break, and he nodded to Joe and Jane to take over.
“Everything seems great, don't you think, Joe?” Billy remarked as he left.
“Don’t see any problems. Just another routine jaunt, I suspect,” Joe said.
Jane moved over to Billy’s seat and began to check the instruments. She looked out her window into the beautiful night sky. The low level of lighting in the quarters allowed her to see the millions of stars. She motioned to Joe and pointed them out. He smiled and watched for a few moments, leaned back,
and closed his eyes.
A small vibration jolted Jane from her vision of the stars. It did not last long, but, to be certain, Jane scanned the entire instrument panel looking for any signs of danger. She saw none, remained vigilant for any minor or unusual oscillation but relaxed after a few minutes. Then, there was another sound
similar to the first, lasting a bit longer. This time, she alerted Joe from his slumber. He perked upright and proceeded to search for any signs of trouble. The jerking sensation soon stopped. Joe and Jane looked at each other, both shrugging it off as the sound had disappeared and the plane was running smoothly.
“I’ll tell Billy as soon as he comes back. Couldn’t have been turbulence since it seemed to only be on your side of the plane,” Joe said. “Anything on your wing?”
Jane leaned forward and visually inspected the left wing. “Everything seems okay there.” As she sat back, she felt a low-pitched thump was audible.
“Damn, what was that?” Jane snapped.
“Haven’t heard anything like that before,” Joe responded.
Jane checked the wing. “Not a thing there. The wing isn’t vibrating, the engine shows no sign of a wear, and no smoke or fire.”
“Could anything like that sound be coming from the belly of this beast?” Joe asked.
“No freaking idea, Joe,” Jane replied.
“Well, it sure is running smooth right now,” Joe said, still glancing over the panel in front of him.
Billy soon returned to chewing on a sandwich with a cup of juice in his hand. He stood at the door, discarded his cup, and swallowed his last bite. Jane got up and returned to her seat. As soon as Billy got into position, Joe said, “We’ve had some weird noises and vibrations since you left. They didn’t last long. One tiny vibration, another one, and a thump. All on the left, it seems. The last could have been left belly. Right, Jane?”
“Yeah, weird, for sure. Never heard that thump before,” Jane concurred.
“You say everything’s on the left?” Billy asked as he scanned the left wing and partially stood up and looked back to see as much of the junction of the wing and the plane as possible. He started eyeing each specific instrument in front of him and Joe. “All seems intact.”
Over the next fifteen minutes, no other reverberations or unusual sounds were felt or heard. The crew could only speculate as to the origin of them but were relieved that everything was calm. Jane got up and motioned that she was taking her break.
“Just in, there’s storm activity being reported now just east of the islands, mostly over Puerto Rico. Evidently, some lightning and heavy winds, but I think we can avoid it by revising the route more east of P.R. and then get back on course once past it. What do you think?” Billy asked.
“Seems routine to me. I’m looking at that info right now. Seems to me that we may have to go pretty far east to avoid it all, but I don’t see any problem with that decision,” Joe responded.
The door to the cockpit opened, and Jane returned to her seat. Billy and Joe both went over the rerouting of the flight pattern with her, and once she concurred, the coordinates were programmed into the computer to bypass the weather ahead. An ever so slight banking of the Airbus could be felt as it
responded to its instructions. Once it leveled off, Billy placed the A330 on autopilot again and relaxed in his seat, awaiting the next few hours for the usual brilliant sunrise in the east.
~~ ~~ ~~
A yellow hue had now appeared on the eastern horizon. Joe yawned, stretched, unbuckled his seatbelt, and started to get up when a huge tremor followed by a large explosion on the left wing broke the silence. The plane lurched to the left, throwing Joe against Jane as she was just getting her gear on.
Billy immediately took control of the plane, switching off the autopilot while Joe was trying desperately to get to his co-pilot position. Jane was pushing him up and forward off her lap so she could be free to help out.
“Transmit our position and keep transmitting. I’m losing control of this bird slowly but surely. We’re going down, guys. Let’s try to do it so some of us have a chance to survive,” barked Billy, fighting desperately with the control yoke and the rudder pedals.
The vibrating aircraft was definitely in trouble. Billy leaned forward and looked out at the left wing. The engine was on fire, and the front half appeared to be severely deformed and charred from the raging flames. He could just make out what seemed to be extensive damage to the wing. Parts of the wing were curled up and flapping as the air passed irregularly over the airfoil.
“Damn, I think we had a compressor blade failure. It’s destroyed that engine and cut up the wing big time. This is really screwing with any control over the plane for sure. Some of the engine parts must have penetrated the fuselage, and now we have a fire that’s getting bigger and bigger,” Billy said in a
controlled but worried voice.
“The right engine looks good, but that fire is going to take us down. The fire extinguishing bottles didn’t do a thing to that engine fire. We’re at thirty-four now,” Joe replied.
“I can feel the heat. Keep transmitting. Just keep it up. Joe, notify the attendants and the passengers,” Billy said.
Billy set the transponder to 7700, and Jane keyed her microphone repeating, “May Day, May Day, May Day, Air USA twenty-two twenty-two. I repeat, May Day, May Day, May Day, Air USA Flight twenty-two twenty-two. Left engine explosion, fire, and losing altitude.”
Buy Links
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F2194LF
Amazon CA https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07F2194LF
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07F2194LF
What makes this book a must-read and/or what inspired you to write this story:
Actually, this book has been in my mind over the last 60 years. I wrote a short story in high school similar to this and decided to complete it as a novel recently.
I have always loved the concept of the story, so embellishing it was fun and rewarding. I think the reader will enjoy the suspenseful trip ahead for them.
Giveaway:
Enter to win a $150 Amazon (US) Gift Card
Open internationally
Runs September 1 – 30.
Drawing will be held on October 1.
Author Biography
A retired orthopedic surgeon who has traded in his knife for a word processor. Dr. Neviaser has authored over 40 peer reviewed medical articles, several chapters in orthopedic text books, and participated in multiple national and international conferences and seminars.
Website:
Since retiring, he was written one novel, three non-fiction works and has finished his second novel, THE MYSTERY OF FLIGHT 2222, to be published in July 25, 2018:
Two strangers meet while seated together on a long-distance air flight. The more seasoned of the two creates a game to pass the time. They choose seven passengers and proceed to guess their names, age, occupation, marital status, and personality. Later, they are informed of severe mechanical problems disabling the plane, leading to a crash into the sea. They survive along with only seven other passengers, incredibly the seven people from their game. The subsequent prolonged and horrifying adventure in a raft presents many obstacles to their survival including sharks, severe weather, death, hunger, thirst, declining physical and mental health, paranoia, and pirates of the high seas. Their long-awaited rescue from the ravages of the sea is just the beginning of their trip to Hell and back.
He is a columnist for the Culpeper Times, former columnist for the Culpeper Star-Exponent, blogger, and speaker.
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