Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421

Newman is a former flight attendant who uses her background in aviation to carve out a niche within the survival/thriller genre. In 2011, she followed in the footsteps of her mother and sister and became a flight attendant; she worked at Virgin America and Alaska Airlines and often sketched out her stories during overnight flights. The idea for her first novel, Falling, came during one such flight: She envisioned a dilemma in which terrorists hold a pilot’s wife and children hostage and tell him that he must crash the plane or else his family will be killed.

Both Falling and Drowning shed light on the realities of working on a plane. As both novels highlight, the service aspects of the role are secondary; the primary focus of all flight staff, from the pilot to the flight attendants, is ensuring the safety of everyone on board. Drowning provides a glimpse into airline emergency procedures and the staff who are trained to remain calm and professional in the face of danger. Among the people trapped on board are three members of the flight’s crew: Kit, the pilot, and two flight attendants, Molly and Kaholo. Though the emergency at hand falls far outside the scope of their training, they are unrelenting in their responsibility for the passengers. This is especially the case for Kit, who, when the aircraft’s captain is killed on impact, does not hesitate to take on the role in his stead. In an interview with The Guardian following the release of her debut novel, Newman noted, “Most people don’t actually see flight attendants doing our job. They see us bringing food and drink and, you know, smiling—but that’s not our job. Service is something we gladly provide, but we’re there for safety and security at the end of the day” (Flood, Alison. “‘Jaws at 35,000 Feet’: The Flight Attendant Whose Thriller Debut Sold for Seven Figures.” The Guardian, 4 May 2021).

While Falling centers around a terrorist hijacking a commercial flight, the conflict of Drowning is caused by a plane’s mechanical failure. Thus, its focus is not on a moral dilemma or a conflict with an antagonist but on the classic human-versus-nature fight for survival and an intense rescue operation with competing strategies and personalities. Newman leaned on her existing knowledge of airlines and aviation for both novels, but she calls Drowning “far more uncharted territory” in the book’s acknowledgments (289). Throughout the novel, Newman is detailed and specific regarding the aircraft’s technical aspects and emergency protocols, as well as the Coast Guard and Navy’s rescue procedures, and these details lend realism to the story. She researched submarine escape and rescue, scuba diving, engineering, and emergency response. In the acknowledgments, she recognizes the many people who provided her with insight or information, including her “phone-a-pilot friends” (289).

Newman’s novels have been compared to other survival thrillers such as Jaws by Peter Benchley and Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, and Newman has noted that some of her influences include action thrillers like Top Gun. Her novels weave together action genre staples and suspenseful plots with themes of “relationships, love, betrayal, fear, loss, grief and hope” (Baker, KC. “From $35K a Year to 5 Seven-Figure Deals: Flight Attendant-Turned-Author T.J. Newman Is Living Her Dream.” People, 24 May 2023).