"Down To A Sunless Sea" by David Graham Quiz

Answer: The oil ran out

As the story begins, America is a broken society. The oil has run out and the rest of the world rations and hoards their supplies and will not supply any to the US. The dollar is no longer accepted as valid currency for imports and the population of America is in dire straits.

Answer: A piece of steak

Scott and his flight crew carry their own food and drink with them for stopovers in American airports. He uses a piece of steak to "sweeten" the guard up so they can get a lift to the gates of the airport compound.
When they return to the plane they bring two extra people with them, to sneak onto the flight and take them back to London.
The guard finds out but when Scott explains why he wants to take them, he lets them go with the words "it was a good steak Captain."

Answer: Armada Instructions

Every intercontinental airliner carries a black envelope containing instructions for the crew in the event of nuclear war beginning while they are airborne.

Answer: Fales in the Azores

At first it looks like the plane will have to make an emergency landing in a tea plantation on San Miguel island in the Azores, as a local ham radio operator tells Scott that he witnessed an airburst directly over Fales military airfield.
This would have meant the end of the road for the plane and everyone on it, but when they overfly Fales they realise it was a neutron bomb and the airfield infrastructure is intact.

Answer: A soldier

One soldier is left alive at Fales, he had been down in the basement when the bomb struck and was protected from the blast and the radiation. He had sufficient air to stay under cover long enough for the radiation to dissipate enough to let him live when he emerged.

Answer: The Falkland Islands

Redfern and a few other people were trapped in a basement of an army base, and survived the actual bombing, but are dying rapidly of radiation sickness.
Even though they are so ill and weak they manage to keep in contact with Scott and the men at the Antarctic Base and thus give Scott somewhere to take his people out of reach of the radiation.
This is their only chance to save the human race from almost certain extinction.

Answer: Elena

Elena is the co-pilot.
When they realise that in order to fly above the radioactive cloud, they must lighten the plane by 4000 kilos, they jettison everything they can but it is not enough.
The plane is full of Russian women, children, and female soldiers, and the Pilot, Valentina, calls for volunteers to jump out and save the rest.
In very moving scene, Elena leads the volunteers, mainly older women, and those without family on board, to link hands and jump together.

Answer: Father

Mark and Hayley Elkins are aboard the plane, as part of the group of 200 homeless children who were being taken to England by the Red Cross.
Miraculously their father has survived at the Antarctic Base, but had assumed his children were dead as no news had come from America for months before the war broke out.
They had been living rough for several months since their mother died, before being rescued by the Red Cross.
As one character says at the time "If you read it in a book you wouldn't believe it" but it makes for a touching scene.

Answer: Valentina

Scott and Valentina fall in love at first sight when she lands her plane load of Russian women and children at Fales.
They spend the night together, and assume they will die together when the radiation comes, but then are given a lifeline by Redfern.
Once the community is established in Antarctica they can live out their lives together.

Answer: Alpha

They call their new home Alpha, and themselves Alphans, after Valentina quotes the lines from "Xanadu"
"Where Alph the sacred river ran,
Through caverns measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea"