Into the Abyss

April 15, 2013
In this electrifying history, Canadian journalist Shaben chronicles a devastating plane crash and its ramifications on the four survivors. On an icy night in October 1984, a small commuter plane crashed in the Canadian wilderness. One of the four survivors was the author’s father, Larry Shaben, the country’s first Muslim cabinet minister. The others included the young pilot, a police officer, and the drifter he was escorting to face criminal charges. Larry’s physical wounds healed within two months. But he was a different person, more subdued and “quietly haunted,” writes Shaben. Over the ensuing years, her curiosity about the event grew. “The crash’s impact on my father, and the unlikely friendships that formed between the survivors lodged the event firmly in my psyche,” she writes. Shaben skillfully navigates the intricate language of flying for those not familiar with its jargon. She delves into the darker side of the Canadian commuter airline industry and its sorry record of accidents and unreliable equipment. She also adroitly recounts how the survivors cooperated on the night of the crash, in spite of their differences. Though each man incurred emotional scars as a result of the incident, the bonds formed between the survivors during the ordeal lasted for decades. Shaben’s riveting narrative is filled with heart and the story is well told.

April 15, 2013
White-knuckle account of a terrifying 1984 plane crash in the Canadian wilderness and its improbable reverberations in the lives of four survivors. National Magazine Award-winning journalist Shaben's debut has at its center a stranger-than-fiction, cinematic sequence: the injured survivors--the pilot, a politician, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and his prisoner, a fugitive drifter--hanging on to life together overnight in subzero temperatures. The politician, Larry Shaben, Canada's first Muslim Cabinet minister, was the author's father. Fortunately, this personal connection only amplifies Shaben's determination to reconstruct the incident and its aftermath from all four survivors' perspectives. She places the crash in the context of the shaky standards of the commuter air industry. Her meticulous account first focuses on the survivors' back stories: She portrays the pilot as well-meaning but guilty of error under pressure (including flying into bad weather with no co-pilot and incomplete instrumentation). The most compelling character arc is that of the drifter, who rescued his captor from the wreckage and was instrumental in keeping the others alive. He was hailed as a hero, yet his life continued on a dark downward spiral, while the cop he saved left the force for a spiritual quest. On top of all this, Shaben also follows the formidable rescue effort quickly mounted by the hardy rural Canadians. Though the book's propulsive pace slackens in the final sections, dealing with the crash's aftermath--blame was showered on both the airline's corner-cutting and on the luckless young pilot, who was frank about his errors and faced a long redemption--this is a complex, chilling narrative rendered with depth and precision, engaged in both its characters and the larger social moment (the crash led to recommendations for commuter air reform, not always followed in the years since). A worthy addition to the canon of extreme-survival nonfiction.

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April 15, 2013

Canadian politician Larry Shaben was among the survivors of a harrowing commuter plane crash in Alberta in 1984, which left six others dead. Shaben's daughter Carol, a journalist, presents a detailed examination of the causes and consequences of the accident and the personal aftermath for the survivors. Besides Larry, who served as Canada's first Muslim cabinet minister, the other survivors included the 24-year-old pilot, a police officer, and the criminal he was escorting. Shaben's well-written but somewhat overlong narrative reveals the unusually strong bonds formed among this unlikely group through the intensity of their shared experience, as well as their disparate paths in search of meaning in their post-crash lives. VERDICT Combining the survivors' stories with reporting on the official investigation of the crash and related issues of regional airline safety and regulation, this work casts troubling light on the enormous challenges faced by pilots at these smaller airlines and the harsh realities of travel in Canada's unforgiving northern regions. Best suited to readers interested in the history of plane crashes, aviation safety and regulation, or life in Alberta, who may also consider Norman Ollestad's Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival or William Langewiesche's Fly by Wire.--Ingrid Levin, Salve Regina Univ. Lib., Newport, RI

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2013
In October 1984, a commuter plane crashed in northern Alberta. Of the 10 people aboard, there were 4 survivors: the pilot, an RCMP constable, the prisoner he was transporting, and the author's father, the late Larry Shaben, Alberta's housing minister. Journalist Shaben relies heavily on the memories of the survivors, who formed an improbable bond as they waited, desperately, to be rescued from almost certain death from their injuries and from the freezing temperature. The rescue comes about halfway through the book. The rest of it explores the crash's aftermath and the lives of the survivors. Paul Archambault's story is the most interesting. A prisoner with a long rap sheet (car theft, breaking and entering), he became a hero after the crash, saving the RCMP constable's life and helping to keep his fellow survivors warm and safe until the rescuers came. For him, the crash was a life-changing event, but ultimately his life ended tragically. Although author Shaben's father was one of the survivors, she divides the limelight among all four of them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)