Chapter 4
299 Words
It is startling or perhaps, as in this case, sad when real world events overtake fictional ones.
A month after the crisis in this book was conceived and written, an F-35C Lightning II did, in reality, crash while landing on the aircraft carrier CVN-70, USS Carl Vinson in the South China Sea. After the pilot ejected, the jet fell overboard into the ocean, sank, and was finally recovered from over three thousand meters of water. Seven, including the pilot, were injured in this event.
Carl Vinson The aircraft carrier was operational in under thirty minutes and the plane was recovered five weeks later, an amazing technical achievement of its own, from twelve thousand feet of water. The cause of the fair-weather, daylight ramp strike (a landing so low that the pilot clipped the tail-end of the ship) is still under investigation.
The day after I finally decided on and wrote the cause of my fictional crash, a People’s Republic of China warship aimed a military-grade laser at an Australian military airplane in flight—an escalation of prior, lower-grade actions. Their attack occurred well beyond the bounds of the South China Sea. It happened in the Arafura Sea close by the north coast of Australia, well within the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone. The pilots landed safely and are reported to have fully recovered.
dayI decided to retain these elements of my own story, but can’t help wishing this was a cautionary tale, not one ripped from the headlines. Even though I did write this story before these events occurred, I can’t help but be saddened by the rapidity with which they became reality.
ripped from the headlines.Hoping for a brighter, safer future.
M. L. Buchman
North Shore, MA
March 2022 (the first days of the Russian-Ukraine War)
- Writer
