Crichton's 'Airframe' Trivia Quiz

Answer: N-22

The aircraft involved in the mid-air disaster was an N-22 manufactured by Norton Aircraft, Burbank.

Answer: John Marder

John Marder was the COO of Norton Aircraft who headed the Incident Response team (IRT) that was formed to investigate the cause of the N-22 aircraft disaster. Harold Edgarton was the President of the company, Casey Singleton the VP in charge of QA and Bob Richman was a new assistant appointed to work under Singleton.

Answer: Because an important deal with China was due to be signed in a week

Norton Aircraft was working on an important deal with China and the company President Edgarton was due to sign the eight-billion dollar deal in a week's time, Therefore COO wanted the IRT team to complete the investigation in one week.

Answer: The workers were afraid of losing their jobs

There was a rumour that the China deal involved selling the aircraft wing. The union believed that this would effectively hit the company's business leading to closing down of the company and loss of jobs. The union wanted the investigation to be derailed so that the China deal would break down.

Answer: Jennifer Malone

Jeniffer Malone was a 29 year old producer on "Newslin"e. She had a fax about the JAA delay in certifying the N-22 aircraft. That was the starting point for her investigation and she was bent on making a program to prove that the N-22 aircraft was unsafe.

Answer: Richman

Bob Richman attacks Singleton when she goes to the plane to retrieve the QAR. Richman and Marder had conspired to frame Singleton in the N-22 case. They wanted to sabotage the China deal so that Edgarton would be removed and Marder could take over as President. Richman and Marder had also secretly worked out a deal with Korea which included selling the wing.

Answer: An old report which spoke about the unstable aspects on N-22

Richman had deliberately sent an old confidential report to "Newsline" along with the other official documents. This document spoke about the unstable characteristics of the N-22 aircraft. When Singleton confronted Richman, he admitted the conspiracy and told Singleton that she was finished.

Answer: The incident stopped when auto-pilot was activated

Singleton plans a test flight to demonstrate the truth. The flight is operated by Teddy, and Singleton and Malone are abroad. Teddy replicates the incident and the plane experiences turbulence; when he takes his hand off the auto-pilot, the turbulence stops. The result of the test flight was that the incident would not have occurred had the pilot allowed the auto-pilot to take over.

Answer: The pilot's son was flying the plane at the time of the incident

Singleton finds out that the actual reason behind the N-22 incident was that the pilot had temporarily left his son (who also was a pilot, but not for N-22) in the cockpit when he had gone for coffee. Because of a slats warning arising out of a faulty part, the pilot had extended the slats to clear it. The auto-pilot immediately corrected the error, but the pilot's son who didn't know about the plane tried to override the auto-pilot resulting in the disaster.

This situation is based on a true incident which happened in 1994, when an Aeroflot Airbus A310-304 crashed in Siberia killing all the passengers and crew. The voice recorder revealed that the pilot's 15 year old son was flying the plane when the accident took place.

Answer: She is promoted as head of media relations division

At the end of the story, the truth is revealed thanks to Singleton's efforts. As a result of her efforts, "Newsline" drops the N-22 story and the China deal goes through. The company President Edgarton promotes her to head of the media division. Marder's conspiracy is foiled and he quits the job. Richman is arrested in Singapore for narcotics possession and Jennifer Malone leaves "Newsline" and joins 'Hard Copy'.