35 Miles from Shore: The Ditching and Rescue of ALM Flight 980

by: Emilio Corsetti III

Published by: Odyssey Publishing, LLC

Reviewed by Jan Warren

Imagine it’s May 2, 1970, and you’re departing JFK en route to the tropical island of St. Maarten on a DC-9 jet with fifty-six other passengers and six crewmembers.

The forecast includes a chance of thunderstorms, but because of the experienced captain and crew, you’re not alarmed. The thunderstorms grow in intensity until, at four hours and thirty-four minutes of flight time, the plane’s fuel reserves are depleted.

You barely get your life vest on…wham, the plane, still traveling one hundred miles an hour, hits the angry sea, slamming people and debris into the aisles. Screams fill the air as water rises around your ankles. Dazed, you manage to get free and are shoved out an open hatch. Sea water closes over your head. Panic gives you strength to pull the tabs that inflate your vest and shoots you up to the turbulent surface.

Fellow passengers, many injured and bleeding, bob like bright-orange fishing lures around you, however there’s no sign of a life raft, only the inflatable escape slide, which holds three people. Belts are tied to the slide’s handles to hang on to, but hypothermia will soon take its toll, or sharks will be drawn by the injured and dead.

The plane slips under the sea leaving forty souls clinging to life. The closest help is two hours away. Once the first rescuers arrive, fifteen-foot swells impede their valiant efforts to save the crash victims.

Hopefully that exercise helped you envision the heart of this non-fiction story. The author has included tons of in-depth research that define the mistakes, the aircraft, and the many individuals involved in this catastrophe. I found the weighty amount of narrative details overshadowed the humanity of the story and made for a laborious read.

However, if you are a pilot or have a love of commercial flying, this book’s detailed behind-the-scenes information may intrigue you. I give it 4 stars.

Armchair Interviews says: This story brings you into that event very clearly.

Author’s Web site: http://www.35MilesFromShore.com