George Jehn walks readers through his experiences of both investigating the crash of Eastern Airlines flight 980 and attempting to secure the livelihoods of his fellow pilots at the airline. He runs into dead ends in both endeavors and discovers these tasks are more interlinked than he might have imagined. He also hints at Reagan Administration hiding some pretty skeletons in its closet.

aviation history buffs and those who want to understand some of the more dubious business-government dealings that haven't gotten the press coverage they should have. That said, this may make some pro-union sorts a bit unhappy, as union behavior is shown in both good and bad light.

the typos. There are a few typos, and my brain got a little distracted by them. It's not enough to completely take away from the book, but it's something I did notice

See if there will be a repting of this book made so I can buy a bunch of copies to put in Little Free Libraries. I also wanted to pick up a copy of The Cocaine Wars by Paul Eddy et al., as that book is referenced in Jehn's writing and hints at early efforts to disspell myths about drugs in the US.

various levels and surprised and unsurprised at the same time. While I wasn't too surprised at the law enforcement corruption in Miami playing a part (because Miami in the 80s was a truly wild place), I was a bit more surprised to see businessmen flaunt their religious piety (specifically of the Christian variety) even back in the 70s. Seeing Frank Borman's beliefs and his business practices seemingly contradict each other also proved to be rather infuriating (but again not that surprising).

flew for Eastern Airlines for close to 20 years before the airline shut down. He has found another career in authorship and even tried his hand at fiction in the early 2020s.

It forces readers to reexamine their notions of both business and politics in the 80s. There are also many threads of the tale that continue to be relevant even decades after the fact.

There are color photographs from the crash site of flight 980 included in the back of the book. It's rather interesting to see what circumstances the NTSB crew worked in (and did so despite being woefully underprepared to the point of being actively harmed thanks to the decisions of NTSB leadership).

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Created Nov 01, 2025 at 2:00pm • Submit your own review...