You probably didn’t know it, but I’ve been on vacation this whole week. I did some pre-programming for you to fill out the week, but, spoiler alert… I’m on vacation next week too. For this week, we will have the usual Cranky Weekly Review presented by Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport tomorrow, but that’s it, other than an episode of The Air Show podcast until next Friday’s Cranky Weekly Review on 8/14. will have a special Saturday post before we get back to normal.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for something to read… well, today’s book review might point you in the right direction. I’ll be back soon!
I don’t often do book reviews, but occasionally I read something that grabs me in a way that I just can’t help but share with all of you. That’s how I feel about Flying Crooked by Steve Borgess, an unbelievable read that is actually, surprisingly, based in reality.
To be clear, this is very clearly highlighted as a novel. It is a work of fiction, but Steve — who is now a retired American captain — based this on his experience trying to get on as a pilot with the majors back in the late 1970s. I reached out to Steve to learn just how much of this was real, and it’s more than you would probably guess after reading the book.
The noveled is centered around Jack, a young but skilled pilot who we meet hauling freight on DC-3s out of Philadelphia. It turns out, this closely mirrored Steve’s life flying for Summit Airlines.
In the book, Jack heads down to Florida to try to get on with a big-time cargo carrier, but he ends up getting connected with an airline that has several names that just picked up three used DC-8s to fly the Hajj, connecting Indonesian travelers to Jeddah via Colombo. What ensues is a tale that seems too wild to believe, but in a sense, Steve really just sanitized what actually happened to him while connecting some unrelated dots — like the actual accident of Loftleiðir Flight 001 — into his tale.
You’ll have to read Flying Crooked to see how this story comes together, but be warned. It can get a little technical in a way that will appeal to the pilots out there. Those of you who don’t fly and may not care about exactly how, for example, LORAN works may want to skim some parts. And don’t get too attached to the female interests in the book, because they aren’t fully developed. Other than that, this is just a fun read about what kind of absolutely insane flying happened in the late 1970s at the dawn of US deregulation.
In Steve’s case, he did actually fly the Hajj, though the situation was somewhat different than what played out in the book. He had originally gone down to fly for a friend of his dad’s, both of whom had flown for Pan Am. After three days at the Holiday Inn, there was a knock at the door, and he was told to leave. The whole thing fell apart, and there wasn’t any money left to pay the hotel. But, something else popped up from the ashes.
He ended up flying for an “airline” that had picked up three domestic United DC-8-21s — that had only domestic avionics onboard, with an HF radio thrown in so they could operate — to fly from Indonesia to Jeddah with that stop in the Colombo base each way.
I put “airline” in quotes, because the way Steve told it to me, this company was just some Indonesian guys looking to make a quick buck. The airline had a Hong Kong address, but it didn’t even have a name. They called it NaTomBi for the first names of three of the guys involved in the operation. Most were retired pilots from airlines like Pan Am and Braniff who were just looking to extend their careers after retirement age. That was mixed with young copilots trying to build hours and inexperienced flight engineers looking to become experienced.
This airline was technically flying for Merpati, an Indonesian airline that is long gone. Unlike in the book, Merpati provided the flight attendants, and they slapped a sticker on the airplane. But beyond that, Merpati had no involvement. Steve sent me a photo he took of one of the planes in Colombo.
Photo via Steve Borgess
Overall, it sounds like Steve’s experience mirrored Jack’s in the book in that both operations sat in the gray area, using questionable legal rationale to operate. They both ran into significant problems along the way. The air conditioning incident in the book? That actually happened. Oh and the Syrian airspace thing? There was really an issue, though it was not nearly as dramatic as depicted.
In the end, Steve said he barely flew in the operation, because the planes kept breaking down. Around three months in, he just left and went home, eventually getting on with American and having a long, successful career until mandatory retirement age kicked in.
But this isn’t the story of some grizzled veteran. This is the story of a young, dumb kid who had no fear and would do anything to get jet time so he could keep moving forward in his career. It’s just far more real than kids coming up today in the US airline system could probably imagine. And that’s why it’s such a fun read.
You can find Flying Crooked on Amazon
