“Shit happens and it doesn’t mean it’s somebody’s fault.
And in the test flight of an airplane, shit often happens."
- Experimental Test Pilot Eric E. Fiore
On Tuesday October 10, 2000 a Challenger 604 experiment al test aircraft
crashed on take-off, dragging a wing, before turning into a fireball. Two of the three
crewmembers died on impact, but the third was rushed to Via Christi Burn Center in
Wichita, Kansas. The copilot Eric E. Fiore suffered 50% 4th degree burns, primarily
to his face and hands, in addition to numerous other injuries. With destroyed lungs
and no face, Eric suffered for 36 long days with his wife of 20 years by his side.
Flight Through Fire, over nine years in the making, is a completed 115,895 word
creative nonfiction work. It is a tragic love story, full of unexpected humor, centered
on a deep devotion to aviation, and touches on many areas with wide reader
appeal: the response of a billion dollar company and an entire Kansas town, the
intense pressure placed on a hospital, the tragic realities of severe facial burns, the
evolution of an eating disorder in the pilot’s teenage daughter, the extreme
emotional pain of a non-religious family, and what it takes to become an
experimental test pilot. It is about taking responsibility and refusing to become a
part of our society’s penchant for blaming and suing. Ultimately, Flight Through Fire
is about the surprising strength that can come from another person’s love.
The book is about a unique love story between two teenagers that started in an
airplane. It is as much a love of each other as it is a love of aviation.
And sometimes that kind of love has a high price.
| Flight Through Fire A True Aviation Love Story by Carol Fiore |
| For publishing rights please contact Carol at fiorefamily@hotmail.com. She recently terminated the contract with her literary agent. |
