High Wire by Kam Majd

I think anyone would hate to be hired simply to check some box, but plenty of folks think that Kate Gallagher was hired by Jet East airlines because she was 1. Female; 2. youngest female pilot; 3. Single mom; and 4. It doesn’t hurt that she’s kinda hot.

Kate got hooked on flying as a teenager when, on a dare, she did a sky dive. After a few more jumps, she realized the thrill wasn’t in the going down but in the going up. Went through all the steps to become a pilot eventually qualifying as a commercial pilot. 

Now she can sit in both chairs, first officer or as the captain. She’s piloting a full winter evening flight from DC to JFK. New York weather sux but still passable for landing. The first approach is shaky because of wind and the controls feel wonky. The next approach, the plane starts to have a mind of its own. Not only is it non-responsive, but it is performing random actions. As she fights for control on final approach, it becomes obvious that the next step is a nose-down collision with the ground. Only way she can see to avoid it is to simply shut the plane off and glide in as best she can. The resulting crash claims six lives, but her actions saved the rest of the passengers and crew.

NTSB arrives promptly. Barely ahead of the media. No clue why the plane started acting on its own. The media comes to their own conclusion: pilot error. And of course, the plane crashed because of a young, marginally experienced female pilot — a token hire — was at the controls.

Kate is now caught up in a media storm at the airport, her home, anywhere she tries to go. She knows it wasn’t her fault, but without clues from the plane’s data recorders, it’s hard to prove she wasn’t at fault.

Kate is no shrinking violet. She’s a hard charger. If the NTSB is slow in its investigation, she’ll have to speed things up. She starts with instructors at the Jet East training school to see what electronic/mechanical steps would be needed for a plane to act on its own. One of the possibilities may be found in the backup navigation systems called STAR so she approaches them. Turns out a freight jet in the Jet East system also went down a few months earlier. Pilot suicide was ruled the cause, so Kate also checks in with the widow.

Kate stays a step or two ahead of the NTSB (burdened by established protocols) and eventually learns how the planes have been hacked and the who and why is behind it. The conclusion of the investigation is absolutely ‘can’t put it down’ territory.

The author is an earlier Edgar nominee, and the author notes suggest that this book will be the start of a Kate Gallagher series. I can guarantee I’ll be there for the next installment. Kate Gallagher kicks open doors like none other. One reviewer called her, “Erin Brockovich meets Jack Ryan.’ The author is an Iranian-born, US commercial pilot so the techno aspects of the book as stunning. Write about what you know is the saying. He's done just that.

Looking for a riveting, machine-gun rapid fire plotting thriller? Look no further.This'll take your breath away

ECD

High Wire by Kam Majd (1565)

 

This is the first book that Men Reading Books has reviewed by Kam Majd. Originally written in 2003, it has now been rereleased by Mind Stir Media, and it has been nominated as a finalist for the Edgar Award. Kam Majd worked as an airline pilot for 44 years.

 

Captain Kate Gallagher was an airline pilot with Jet East, in fact, she had been the youngest woman who had ever risen to fly first seat in the commercial air industry. On the current flight, she was paired for the first time with Flight Officer Edmond Bell. While Ms. Gallagher had proven herself over and over as a competent pilot in the years she had worked for Jet East, Mr. Bell was five years older than her and had been passed over for a first seat job. Clearly, he was a misogynist, and really as asshole in most regards. As their flight was headed for JFK, the winter weather was awful and kept getting worse. The vision outside was nearly zero, and the wind was blowing at 50+ mph. Meanwhile, Bell was complaining about everything and announced that he wanted the night to end. Gallagher was having trouble with her equipment giving her the data she needed to safely set the plane down on the runway, so she chose to do a fly around for a better landing. Once again, as she was about to set the plane down, her instruments went haywire and she could not control the aircraft. The plane inverted and landed upside down. Kate recovered from a short period of consciousness to find herself hanging upside down, and she found Bell also strapped into his seat and bleeding. She passed out again on the way to the hospital and awoke there three days later. She learned that six people had died and there were scores of injured passengers. Kate was horrified.

 

A cargo plane had gone down recently, killing the pilot and co-pilot, and it was blamed on pilot error. Although there was no evidence of a current depression, it was thought the pilot had intended to commit suicide. In Kate’s case, despite her fantastic record, she was blamed for incompetence. Allegedly, she was hired to improve the male-female hiring record of Jet East, and it was being said in the media that she had been inappropriately rushed into her role as captain. The national air safety board, in its investigation of the crash, was leaning towards pilot error having been the cause, but meanwhile there was a corporate struggle for control of the empire that developed and maintained the computerized flight systems that were being used in all aircraft world wide, and in fact, systems that were modified to fit all modes of travel, be that car, ship, etc. As Kate struggled to understand what had occurred, we were introduced to her family including her immigrant Greek mother and her now fatherless 5 year old daughter, Molly. She had risen to her job as airline captain after coming from meager circumstances.

 

Kate Gallagher is a fantastic protagonist. The pace of this book is rapid as Kate encounters one problem after another as it is suggested that she was incompetent rather than a hero who had saved the lives of her passengers when total fatality was a more likely outcome. The press was not on her side. She discovered that there was a sabotage underway with not only her aircraft and the one that had crashed just before her own tragedy, but there were more such accidents that had been programed into more aircraft, and that would mean the death of countless more people. Meanwhile, she kept rising to the challenges which faced her, requiring even higher heroic actions.

 

This book gets a 5/5 rating, and I’m pleased to know there is a sequel in the works with Kate Gallagher as the protagonist. Also, I plan to soon read a second novel by the author, Silent Voices. Thanks to Janet Hudson Hagan at Social Deviants for the chance to read this book.