Drowning written by author T J Newman, is an ex-flight attendant, so she really knows what the responsibilities and capabilities of flight attendants are. She brought them to the forefront of this story and gave them authentic power and relevance.
Crashed and submerged in the ocean, passengers aboard a commercial airplane come together to survive. The author educates us about the dynamics of the ocean, diving to its depths, and capabilities of underwater rescue. There are ten people aboard the submerged plane.
Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter, Shannon, are aboard a flight between Honolulu and his daughter’s summer camp in California. Minutes after take-off, one of the engines burst into flames, followed by system failures of the aircraft, forcing the crew to land on open water. They did not have the capability to turn around or reach anywhere else on land. Air traffic control is aware of their situation and approximate location, by way of the crew’s last communications. The crew has informed them they have to land on the ocean below them.
Will, an oil rig engineer is familiar with the environment and conditions of the ocean, and advises the surviving crew not to leave the cabin of the plane, which sounds crazy to the other passengers, who believe it’s the obvious course of action to go out to the open water away from the plane to be picked up by responding rescue crews. But Will explains that the engulfing fires outside combined with the trade winds over the open water, a slow-moving emergency raft or a person swimming, could not outmaneuver the unpredictable moving bodies of flames. Anyone going outside would eventually be burned alive. Some take his advice, some don’t. A short time after most of the passengers leave the plane, the engine explodes and the plane sinks to the ocean floor with the remaining passengers inside and the inferno above with the other passengers, with the rescue teams on their way.
Once submerged the author explains the dynamics of the ocean, how deep it is and the dangers of the pressure changes below. The ocean is broken into five zones, with the top five percent being the most inhabited sunlight zone. The remaining four were darker, colder, and subject to extreme pressure. Once the rescue teams arrived, they discovered that the plane was banked, nose down on the summit of a sunken volcano, that was now a broad shelf or cliff – they were within reach, 55 meters (180 ft) down. But how to get 10 people out of a sunken container without drowning them was the puzzle.
The co-protagonist in the novel is Will Kent’s wife, Chris, who is the owner of an underwater construction and rescue/recovery diving company. She is an expert diver and architect of new designs to fit unique situations that may arise in the marine environment. She believes her crew has the knowledge and capability to rescue the remaining crew and passengers of the submerged plane, however, being civilians among Navy and Coast Guard personnel, their expertise is sidelined and undermined, expending precious time and oxygen of the people below the surface. Not to mention failure could also mean compromising the vulnerable positioning of the submerged plane, sending it over the edge to the dark pressurized depths below.
The novel is fast paced, with technical mentions and explanations of the plane’s design, deep diving technique, and underwater rescue, which was interesting and intense. Relating this knowledge informed the reader just how dangerous and precarious the situation really was and that no one was safe, not the submerged passengers or those attempting rescue.
Simultaneously, on the emotional end, the experiences of the passengers and the plane’s crew are brought to life skillfully by the author, sometimes with tearjerking intensity. I loved the interactions between the passengers and the technical/rescue teams above, just great! Drowning by T J Newman is an action-packed thriller of a read, with tensions building right to the very end. I recommend this one for sure!