[PW] Re: ?movie/book id about plane crash in river

[Bill Davis]

Ernest K. Gann's memoir, FATE IS THE HUNTER tells of an incident when the 
plane he was piloting lost three engines flying out of LaGuardia, and how 
he managed to get the plane back safely.   In the Glenn Ford movie of the 
same name, which was inspired by Gann's book, the plane crashes on the 
beach with great loss of life, and Glenn Ford sets out to prove that his 
friend, the dead pilot, was not responsible.   In the movie, a spilled 
drink is found to a have caused a short that gave the pilot false warnings 
of multiple engine failures.

See:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate_Is_the_Hunter

Bill Davis


At 02:33 PM 12/3/2006, you wrote:

>Hello,
>I have a patron who is trying to identify a book.  I'm not having any luck;
>I'm wondering if he has confused two or more incidents.
>
>He says it was "a famous book, translated into several languages, including
>Polish"  about a real accident. He says the author is Jack Higgins.   I've
>had no luck locating a book by Jack Higgins on this topic. There was a movie
>made of the book. The plane was taking off from LaGuardia and crashed into
>the river.  The pilot was an alcoholic and there is a scene where he is
>trying to hide the bottle of liquor so that it won't be found.
>
>I've tried IMDB using "plane crash river" and variants, but no luck.  I did
>find a movie about the plane crash into the Potomac but it didn't seem to be
>based on a book;, and information on at least two different crashes at
>LaGuardia in which the plane went into the river but no movie.  And none of
>the ones I've found cite an intoxicated pilot as being the cause. I've tried
>Amazon and First Search but am not finding anything that fits all the
>criteria.  I'm hoping someone will remember the scene in the movie so that
>we can at least identify that and find out if it was indeed based on a book.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Jeanne
>_______________________________________________
>Project Wombat
>list at project-wombat.org
>http://www.project-wombat.org/