Crashers Written by Dana Haynes

WOW! What an airplane and roller coaster ride, both at the same time. Dana Haynes has written a terrific story by telling the reader about the crash of a large airliner and how the many people that form the group called “Crashers” gather from all over the United States to investigate thoroughly such a crash. At first this was not thought of as a terrorist act so the group does its thing as they do for a normal crash complete investigation (if any airplane crash could be normal). You as the reader are in every part of this trip from finding each specialist in their field of airplanes to the gathering of every piece of evidence regarding the plane, the crew, the manufacturers, and the passengers. Some may be out of the country but they are summoned quickly as every minute is so important in any crash investigation. You also are with the terrorists as you learn how they brought this plane down and their plans for more crashes for reasons you learn later in the book.

Dennis Silverman is one of the key people in the investigation since the corporation that he works for manufactured the new and most modern “black box” carried in this flight. The crash itself occurred in Oregon. You start as you are flying and piloting the airliner on an approach to land when all goes wrong. Believe me when I say you will feel as though you are in the crew’s seats. There were a few survivors but they were no help giving any information to assist the investigation. When the torn apart airplane body started to cool down, the “Crashers” entered the plane and, once again the descriptions make you feel like you could be inside trying to find body parts and plane parts and getting nauseous from particles of humans, blood, and bones as they are found.

Dr. Leonard ‘Tommy’ Tomzak had retired from the Crashers but he was the closest to the crash site and felt it was his duty to assist, but instead became the leader of the entire investigation. As the many specialists of their field checked in at the site or by other means of communication, Tommy took over and instructed all what and where to do their thing. All the local and state police and fire departments were on site to assist as much as they could. Arrangements were made for a huge new UPS facility nearby to serve as the reconstruction area for the plane parts. First words or photographs noted every painful detail; then huge trucks and lifting equipment were found to lift and move the scattered airplane parts. A second airplane that was exactly the same as the crashed one was brought in and placed in the same huge hanger for comparison and detailed re-assembly.

Many investigators were assembled from more fields than most of us have heard of. They worked together so well that all felt Tommy was doing a great job even though he had retired-HAD the meaningful word! I will not go into all the names involved but you can easily identify them as you read. The author has done a great writing job that keeps the reader in the story without confusing them. When the chance of a second crash is brought to the teams’ attention, things moved even faster. This had to be prevented and the reason for the first crash had to be discovered even faster.

Dana Haynes, please give us some more of your writing in this style. We need more authors to write as you wrote “Crashers” that will teach a highly important function of a group such as the Crashers while entertaining us and leaving us into your book not wanting to put it down.

Crashers Written by Dana Haynes