Carol Shaben

I enjoyed Shaben’s book, but make no mistake: if you’re looking for a Piers Paul Read (“Alive!: the Story of the Andes Survivors”)—type book, this isn’t it. For one thing, this story is about a group of people involved in a small commuter plane crash, like the Alive! group, but the Into the Abyss group is only stranded for about 12 hours. So don’t look for any talk of cannibalism or anything like that. Without giving too much away, this isn’t so much a plane crash story as it is a story of human nature and heroism. The plane crash part of the book is only about half of it. The other half is about how the crash affected the rest of the lives of the survivors, and that story is just as interesting. I applaud Shaben for her efforts. She’s written a good book, just not a Krakauer, Junger, or Grann book. Still worth the read.… (meer)

Una noche helada de octubre, en 1984, una avioneta que llevaba a bordo nueve pasajeros se estrello en los bosques del norte de Alberta, Canada. Murieron seis personas. Los cuatro supervivientes fueron el piloto novato, un importante politico, un policia y el criminal al que escoltaba para llevarle a juicio. A pesar del mal tiempo, Erik Vogel, el piloto de 24 anos, fue presionado para volar, algo que no es infrecuente en las lineas aereas pequenas. Su temor a perder el trabajo si se negaba le obligo a tomar la decision de alzar el vuelo. Larry Shaben, el padre de la autora y primer ministro musulman de la historia de Canada, volvia a casa despues de su ocupada semana en el Parlamento canadiense. El policia recien salido de la academia Scott Deschamps habia decidido quitarle las esposas al detenido al que escoltaba Paul Archambault, un vagabundo con acusaciones pendientes en otro estado nada mas subir al avion, un hecho que va en contra de las normas y que acabo por tener una considerable importancia en los acontecimientos que estaban aun por suceder. La lucha por la supervivencia acaba por borrar todas las barreras sociales, la diferencia de clases, las cifras de la cuenta corriente de cada uno y hace que se enfrenten con las limitaciones de la propia existencia. Los supervivientes acabaron por forjar amistades inesperadas y a traves de ellas encontraron tambien la fuerza y el coraje para reconstruir sus vidas.… (meer)

Shaben gives an account of a plane crash where her father, a politician, was one of the four survivors. The pilot also survived as well as two others, an RCMP officer and the prisoner he was accompanying. The prisoner became the life-saving hero of the crash and was deservedly exonerated.

I remember this disastrous crash well because another politician, Grant Notley, leader of the Alberta NDP party at the time, was also on board and was one of the six who did not survive. He was seen as a potential for sea change in Albertan politics if he managed to uproot the entrenched Conservative party. Eventually it was his daughter Rachel Notley who achieved the feat.

An interesting thing I learned was that a helicopter's fierce rotor speeds creates static electricity and the first rescuer let down on a long line receives a significant jolt. In this case it blasted the rescuer a foot in the air and left him immobile on his back for a minute.

Shaben's book is an engrossing account of the crash as well as the aftermath.… (meer)