Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421

Though an elite rescue team made up of Coast Guard and Navy professionals leads the charge in this rescue mission, Newman consistently highlights the vital role that everyday people play in moments of crisis and disaster. On all sides of the rescue operation—both inside the sunken plane and on the surface—Newman demonstrates how humans step up and perform extraordinary acts for each other in moments of great need.

This idea is initially challenged in the immediate aftermath of the crash—many passengers give into panic and chaos as they shove toward exits and step over the fallen and injured—but these moments of self-preservation, while inevitable, are few and far between. Newman instead highlights moments of courage and selflessness, such as when Bernadette steps in to help an injured woman rather than advance toward the exit during the evacuation. Similarly, when the Coast Guard arrives at the crash site and calls for available boats to assist, average people without rescue training or experience “put their work, vacations, and honeymoons on hold” to aid in a risky rescue effort (64), saving passengers from the flames and providing medical treatment to survivors. As the novel approaches its climax, the central characters become aware of the mission’s wide scope, incorporating civilian boats, MedLink operators, and even the people simply rooting for the passengers’ safe return home. Even the smallest of these acts provides hope for the passengers and the rescue team racing to save them.

Ironically, two deaths—Andy and the young diver, Runt—could have been avoided had the experts on the Coast Guard and Navy rescue team deferred to the expertise of an “everyday” person rather than rely solely on professional protocol and the usual chain of command. On the plane, the opposite occurs; the passengers survive because Kit listens to Will’s advice to seal themselves inside the plane. Kit, as the captain, feels the weight of responsibility for the people on board and is willing to eschew protocol if it ensures their safety. This willingness to collaborate with regular people rather than assume that she is the absolute authority situates Kit as a hero, and she succeeds in keeping the passengers safe.

When the professional rescuers’ plans fail, the onus of saving the passengers falls squarely on Chris’s shoulders, a burden she takes up readily when she discovers that her daughter is on board. Chris is a professional diver but has no rescue training; her ruthless pursuit of her plan, even with no experience and in the face of constant opposition, embodies this theme of heroism. In the novel’s tense climax, Chris is framed like a classic thriller/action hero, facing off against daunting odds to save a group of innocents and persisting when the other divers retreat, nearly losing her life in the process.

Family is the emotional core and driving force behind the story’s suspense-filled plot; both Will and Chris are predominantly driven by their motivation to save their daughter at all costs. Beyond this, however, people who have no direct relation to the passengers are fighting to help bring them home. Fitz for example, is driven by empathy, thinking of the passengers’ family members. Family becomes central to the rescue mission, as those who are helping can relate to the pain of losing a family member and want to spare others from experiencing the same pain. Thus, this shared empathy is a driving force behind the mission.

Will’s point of view initially presents family as a contentious issue, as he is in the middle of separating from his wife of 16 years following the death of their oldest daughter, Annie. The breakup of his family causes Will to feel like he has failed as a husband and father; at the end of Chapter 5, he reflects on parenthood somberly as he thinks about the last time he picked up his daughter Shannon. The idea of parenthood being about “lasts” underscores Will’s attachment to the past and his struggle to move forward. The later chapters that contextualize Will and Chris’s marital troubles further highlight this and strengthen this link between the theme of family and a sense of grief and loss. Newman comments on the idea that life experiences, including grief or trauma, are “what make[] a marriage [and] what make[] a family,” but they are also “what break[] them” (51). Though Will and Chris were once a team, their daughter’s death drove them apart. As the novel progresses, however, Will realizes that his attachment to the past has caused him to miss out on what is truly important: connecting with his family and focusing on their future. Ironically, though trauma broke his family apart, the traumatic experience of the crash forces them all to come together and connect once again.

The crash also forges a different sort of family among the passengers. Through their shared struggle to survive, the survivors of Flight 1421 develop an intimate bond as they grow to care for and rely on each other. They quickly develop from a collection of individuals concerned for their own survival to a unified group as they help each other, grieve and celebrate together, and ultimately escape the plane together. Thus, Newman expands the idea of “family” to include not only bonds of blood or marriage but also those of loyalty or shared experience. This idea of a “found family” is also prevalent among Chris’s team; they are a tight-knit group who have known each other for years and are bound by their loyalty to Chris. The idea of family, both in a literal and symbolic sense, is thus the heart of the story, as it is the primary way that characters connect and empathize and the impetus for survival.