Blackout

John J. Nance, most well known from his appearances as an aviation analyst on the TV shows ABC World News and Good Morning America, is also a prolific writer of thrillers that rely heavily on his experiences as an Air Force pilot and a civilian 737 pilot for a major airline. In the 2000 novel Blackout, Nance uses this knowledge to create a plot that relies in large part on the inherent tension of a group of passengers on a 747 plane who attempt to survive the incapacitation of the pilots. One of a series of novels featuring as its protagonist FBI Special Agent Kat Bronsky, this work combines its airborne action with her attempt to unravel the conspiracy leading to the plane’s precarious situation.

When the novel opens, strange airplane-related accidents are afoot. A 747 operated by fictional airline SeaAir mysteriously crashes in the Gulf of Mexico without any warning of something going wrong or any danger. A little while later, another airplane, this one operated by an Egyptian airline, disappears from radar without a trace and is never found.

Meanwhile, Agent Bronsky is in Hong Kong, giving a talk at a security symposium about counterterrorism. After the conference, Bronsky heads to the airport to fly back to the U.S. As she waits to board the Meridian #5, a 747 airplane, she is chatted up by Robert McCabe, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The Washington Post. Although both are attractive and clearly have chemistry, McCabe is actually interested in Bronsky’s take on a story he has been following about a terrorist-connected murder. The only contact that he has had for the story is now dead; he is going back to the U.S. to follow up more leads.



They board the plane, but suddenly, just before takeoff, Bronsky’s chief calls – she has been ordered to stay behind in Hong Kong and must disembark. As she leaves the plane, she notices a Global Express business jet near the commercial runways – it is odd enough that she makes a mental note, but doesn’t think much of it.

Two hours after the Meridian #5 takes off, an explosive flash fills the cockpit with white light. The pilot is immediately killed, and the copilot is rendered completely blind. Although he quickly engages the autopilot, all that will do is stabilize the plane. The passengers quickly realize that none of them knows how to fly; nevertheless, one of them will have to land the plane if they want to avoid simply crashing after running out of fuel. After some grim humor about air-disaster movies, they come to terms with the fact that not everyone on board is likely to survive this kind of landing.

Quickly, it is decided that a teenage boy whose familiarity with flight simulator video games makes him the most knowledgeable about the plane’s controls will be the blind co-pilot’s hands. The co-pilot tries to coach the boy on turning the plane around to head back to Hong Kong. This seems to work well until they approach the airport; in attempting to land there, they instead accidentally smash into a control tower. The collision takes out their radio and radar. Thus unable to communicate with the ground, the plane must now try to fly to the next possible landing place: Thailand. On the way, they face lightning storms, rising panic, and a slew of other problems.



Eventually, after much suspenseful action, the plane lands – unfortunately with enormous loss of life. Fortunately, only the unnamed characters die, while the six people whom we have come to know during this ordeal manage to make it out mostly unscathed.

In Thailand, the group of six is met by Agent Bronsky, who has since been assigned the job of figuring out what caused the initial explosion that took out the pilots. Her main lead is the Global Express jet – an airplane whose logo doesn’t match any existing companies.

Almost as soon as Bronsky reconnects with the six crash survivors, it becomes clear that someone is now trying to kill them – either because of what they themselves have seen or because of what McCabe’s research into the terrorism story has revealed. Luckily for the group, Bronsky isn’t just a capable field agent – she has more varied skills than James Bond. In the process of protecting the survivors, she flies jets, helicopters, and propeller planes with ease (the novel dives into the workings of these different machines at length), and she drives a Sno-Cat. She often has to don sexy and distracting disguises. McCabe has already become enamored of her strong and brave personality, but it helps their romance along when he sees her dressed up as an expensive blond sex worker.



Along the way, as the group escapes from danger, they make their way east from Da Nang in Vietnam to the U.S., going from Honolulu, to Seattle, to Portland, and finally ending up in Boise, Idaho, in the span of a few days. Whoever is trying to kill them is always just one step behind: could it be that someone in the FBI is actually part of the evil conspiracy?

All along, Bronsky is putting together what has been happening to all the planes. The U.S. government has created a new kind of weapon, powered by lasers. But when this device fell into the hands of terrorists who immediately started bringing planes down, rather than admitting their own part in these events, the government has been working overtime to cover up the entire chain of events – up to and including the crashes themselves. Their worry is that admitting that any plane can be disabled like this would lead to the collapse of the airline industry.

The main villain, finally unmasked, catches up with McCabe and the rest of the group in snowy Idaho. Rather than immediately killing everyone, he proceeds to talk at length about his plan and his motivations – stalling just long enough for Bronsky to sneak up on him and, at the last second, shoot him.