This is Fresh Air.

I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross.

Most of us take commercial plane flights from time to time, and we've come to accept the

annoyances of air travel.

Tight seats, flight delays, turbulence.

Our guest writer T.J. Newman has written a thriller about a flight from Los Angeles to JFK

Airport where the problems are far more serious.

The pilot learns shortly after taking off that a terrorist has taken his wife and children

captive in their home, and the pilot has a choice.

He must crash the airplane when instructed, or his family will die.

The pilot enlists the help of a veteran flight attendant to try and foil the plot, and

the action is tense and fast-moving.

It's the first novel by Newman, who spent ten years as a flight attendant, at times working

on the story in quiet moments on red-eye flights.

She studied musical theater at Illinois-Wesley & University, and pursued that as a career

in New York before taking to the skies.

Universal has purchased the film rights to her book called Falling, which is now out in

paperback.

I spoke with T.J. Newman last year when the pandemic had made the job of flight attendants

even more difficult, and the federal transportation mask mandate was still in place.

T.J. Newman, welcome to Fresh Air.

Thank you so much.

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