Airframe

The twin jet plane en route to Denver from Hong Kong is merely a green radar blip half an hour off the California coast when the call comes through to air traffic control:

'Socal Approach, this is TransPacific 545. We have an emergency.' The pilot requests priority clearance to land. Then comes the bombshell - he needs forty ambulances on the runway.

But nothing prepares the rescue workers for the carnage they witness when they enter the plane.

Ninety-four passengers are injured. Three dead. The interior cabin virtually destroyed.

What happened on board Flight TPA 545?

At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, Airframe delivers an unprecedented look at the commercial airline industry in crisis - an extraordinary mixture of white knuckle suspense and scientific research that has been the hallmark of Michael Crichton's thrillers since The Andromeda Strain.