Drowning
Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 plunges into the unforgiving Pacific. An engine explodes during evacuation, sealing its fate and trapping twelve souls inside as the commercial jetliner sinks two hundred feet below the surface. This isn't just a crash; it's a watery tomb slowly filling.
Among the trapped are engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter, Shannon. Waist-deep in frigid water, their air supply dwindling, they face a harrowing fight for life within the submerged, sealed cabin.
Above, professional diver Chris Kent leads an elite rescue team. She is Shannon's mother and Will's soon-to-be ex-wife, now forced to put aside their fractured past. Their daughter is down there, and the plane teeters on the edge of an undersea cliff.
T. J. Newman delivers an unparalleled, heart-stopping thriller where a desperate family races against time, impossible depths, and their own fractured history to save not only their daughter but every person trapped in the metal coffin below. With every breath, the stakes rise.
- Will - Passenger, Shannon’s father
- Shannon - Passenger, Chris and Will’s daughter, 11
- Chris - Shannon’s mother, Will’s wife, industrial diver
- Annie - Chris and Will’s daughter, deceased
- Peter - Industrial diver working for Chris
- Noah - Industrial diver working for Chris
- Sayid - Industrial diver working for Chris
- Kit - First officer of Flight 1421
- Miller - Captain of Flight 1421
- Molly - Flight attendant
- Kaholo - Flight attendant
- Maia - Passenger, unaccompanied minor, 7
- Ed - Flight attendant
- Bernadette - Passenger, nurse
- Jasmine - Passenger
- Andy - Passenger
- Ryan - Passenger
- Ruth - Passenger, Ira’s wife, 78
- Ira - Passenger, Ruth’s husband, 78
- Jackie (Fitz) - Coastguardsman
- Mikey Tanner - Diver officer supervisor
- Steve Milton - Coastguardsman
- Runt - Diver
- Flight 1421 crashes into the water six minutes after its departure from Honolulu with ninety-nine souls onboard.
- Molly opens the front door of the plane, and some of the passengers exit onto the water.
- One of the engines explodes, starting a fire and sending jet fuel spilling into the water.
- Will says the smoke from the fire is going to suffocate everyone on the water to death and that they should shut the door.
- Kit agrees with Will and closes the door to the plane.
- The plane sinks before coming to a stop 200 feet below the surface, where it is perched on the edge of an underwater cliff.
- Less than ten survivors are rescued from the water, while most of the passengers are killed by the fire.
- Kit is able to get ahold of the Coast Guard on the surface via the emergency medical phone on the plane.
- The passengers all write letters to seal in bottles in case they don’t make it out alive.
- Several divers descend and dig a trench below the plane so they can put straps around it and pull it off the cliff.
- The plane starts rocking back and forth, causing the divers to abandon their plan.
- Runt slips off the cliff when the weight anchoring him falls into the hole while he is jackhammering.
- Ira tries to cut a wire, accidentally electrocutes himself and dies.
- Divers enter the plane through the cockpit and explain the plan to take one person at a time to the surface in a watertight full-body suit.
- Kaholo tries it and surfaces successfully.
- Andy goes next, but when he sees the captain’s body in the cockpit, he panics. The suit gets torn, fills with water and Andy drowns.
- The rest of the survivors refuse to get into the suit because they feel it is unsafe.
- Chris has a plan to attach a submarine rescue module called Falcon to the roof of the plane.
- The Falcon gets attached to the plane, and everyone gets into it except Ruth, who chooses to stay behind with Ira.
- The plane slips off the cliff edge with the Falcon still attached to it, and Chris dives further to cut the Falcon free, running out of oxygen in the process.
- Chris detaches the Falcon and it surfaces safely.
- Sayid and Noah rescue an unconscious Chris.
- One year later: The survivors get together and read the letters they wrote while on the plane.
- Ruth’s letter was to her children and it said she and Ira went to Hawaii for one last adventure together because her cancer had come back and she didn’t have long to live.
- Chris survives, and she and Will get back together.
The tension in Drowning grabs hold immediately, launching into a high-stakes nightmare right out of the gate. The narrative starts fast, with the suspense rising steadily as the plane hits the water. The story is split evenly between the trapped passengers and the surface rescue, which creates a solid dynamic. Having Will trapped inside the sinking aircraft alongside their daughter, Shannon, while Chris is on the surface helping with the extraction efforts works well as they both fight to save her.
While the short chapters keep the momentum pushing forward initially, I was surprised by how little tension existed among the trapped survivors. I never really got a true sense of panic or terror given the situation they found themselves in. Most of the characters remained overly level-headed, and even when a few started to lose it, I just wasn't feeling that deep unease that the best authors are able to convey through their writing.
The pacing also levels out around the halfway mark and starts to get a bit repetitive. The discussions surrounding the various rescue options become too technical, bogging down the story with confusing details. I had a hard time keeping track of the different teams on the surface and who each operative actually worked for.
Despite the mid-book lull and the heavy technical focus, the rescue operation comes together, and the ending landed well. It remains an enjoyable, quick read that delivers on an intense premise. If you like high-stakes survival, dual perspectives, and race-against-the-clock tension, then you will enjoy this book.
- Miller - Dead - Died in the crash
- Runt - Dead - Dragged off the underwater cliff via a weight and drowned
- Ira - Dead - Accidentally electrocuted himself
- Andy - Dead - Drowned
- Molly - Dead - Drowned
- Will - Alive - Back together with Chris
- Chris - Alive - Back together with Will
- Shannon - Alive - Happy her family is whole again
- Death
- Fire
- Child death
- Car accident
ISBN: 9781982177928
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
