Uncanny coincidence

We’re all shocked and saddened by the airplane crash – Germanwings Airbus A320, Flight 9525.

Last night, my wife Jennifer was reading Clive Cussler’s Corsair (2009), a novel ‘from the Oregon Files’ co-written with Jack Du Brul, and noticed in the story details about a 737 plane crash (pp130/131) that has pre-echoes of the latest tragedy.

‘… we had to consider engine failure – radio dying scenario but discounted it… (we think ) the plane’s tail came off… a structural failure in the tail could very likely damage the radio antennas, which would explain the blackout… it could also knock out the plane’s transponder at the same time…’

‘The screen showed a mountainous area, nearly inaccessible to anything other than a chopper or a serious four-wheel drive… the wreckage stretched for a half mile or more up the slope…’

The same year of this book’s publication there was a plane crash – Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330 – on 1 June. It entered an aerodynamic stall and fell into the Atlantic, killing 228 passengers and crew. The black boxes were not recovered from the ocean floor until 2011.

 

 

 

Later: 27 March: Since writing the above, it has been revealed that one of the pilots deliberately murdered everyone onboard. At the risk of inserting a spoiler, the above book has further echoes, apparently!