Fate Is the Hunter

How far would you go to clear your friend’s name? That’s the central question in Fate Is the Hunter.

After both engines fail during take-off, pilot Jack Savage manages to belly-land his passenger jet on what at first appears to be an open stretch of beach. But the plane skids uncontrollably into a pier, explodes, and kills everyone on board except one passenger, stewardess Martha Webster.

Investigators discover that one engine failed after ingesting a seagull, while the other is found to be mechanically sound. Attention shifts to pilot error, especially since Jack was seen in a bar as little as an hour before the flight. His wartime buddy, airline executive Sam C. McBane, is convinced of his innocence and begins a dogged investigation.

Through Sam’s investigation, we learn Jack’s backstory: he is a hedonistic, Don Juan type, prone to partying and acts of stupid courage, but also capable of real tenderness. Sam wants to find some way to rule out pilot error. He does not believe Jack was at fault. At one point, he seems ready to settle on fate as the explanation. Too many variables were in play. It could not have happened any other way. Still, he is not satisfied.

Sam eventually convinces the airline to let him recreate the flight. Everything must be exactly the same. Instead of passengers, they strap sandbags into the seats. With a small crew on board, they recreate the conditions of the original flight, including a coffee spill during the turbulence caused by the first engine shutting down. Sam opens the console access panel and discovers that the spilled coffee seeped into the system, short-circuiting the wiring and causing both the radio failure and a false fire warning. The confusion this created, rather than pilot error, was the true cause of the crash.

The recreated flight is a ridiculous plotline, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief so Sam could figure it out. Different though it is in many ways, his obsessive need to understand what happened, and the gradual building of Jack’s character through that investigation, reminded me of Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Fantastic read.