Before the advent of today’s technology, with the many varieties of communication and navigation available via iPads, iPhones, and streaming information into today’s cockpits, the pilot had to solely rely on information provided through the aircraft’s communication and navigation radios.
Loss of these radios, through a complete electrical failure, on a dark stormy night would place the pilot and his aircraft in the position of being blind and deaf while they flew with no navigational directions or communications to guide their aircraft.
This is such a drama based on a true documented event by the author on a flight on November 15, 1971, as a young corporate pilot flying a twin-engine aircraft from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Bedford, Massachusetts. The dramatic event is told from the flight deck of a Boeing 767 as the author is acting as a captain on a flight from New York to London; it is a story told within a story.
This is an in-depth tale as told from the author’s cockpit, the FAA controllers, the Coast Guard ASR Cap Cod chopper, and an Air Force cargo C130 aircraft. The reader will experience the extreme danger and almost suicidal attempts by the pilot/author to save his aircraft and its occupants’ lives. An airborne “perfect storm” without the tragic ending. Sit back, loosen your seat belts, and welcome aboard!
