A Flight with Terror

After a short sightseeing trip to Cairo, Anthony Steele leaves the hotel and phones his wife in England on the way to the airport. He boards an Air Egypt Boeing at the same time as Captain Kominski passes through aircrew security and walks out to the aircraft. As the Captain nears the jet, a baggage handler hands him a parcel containing two Glock 9.mm pistols. Kominski joins the crew on the flight deck and asks the Captain if he can stay with them for the flight to Paris. Soon after take-off, Kominski shoots the Captain and takes control of the aircraft, which descends below radar and heads for a disused airfield near Grozny in Russia, where Chechen terrorists are waiting. After landing, a Chechen will contact the Russian Embassy in Paris and demand the release of two Chechen bothers held in the Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, plus ten million US Dollars in exchange for the passengers. During its low level flight over the Mediterranean, the Boeing is seen by two French Destroyers on patrol off Cyprus and it is reported to Naval Intelligence. As it flies on towards Grozny the high use of fuel at low level becomes critical and eventually the jet runs out of fuel and crash lands in the Bolshoi mountains. Kominski and the co-pilot are killed, along with many of the passengers, but Steele survives with Ed Taylor, an American and his wife. At the same time, a flight of three jet fighters take off from a US Carrier to search for the Boeing, while simultaneously three Russian MIG fighters depart from an airfield at Tbilisi to begin searching. As a result of a mid-air collision, one the US jets crashes, but the pilot escapes and is captured by Chechens hiding in the mountains. From then on it is a fast moving adventure with the Russian forces and the Americans trying to find the survivors of the crashed Boeing and fighting the Chechen terrorists, while the UK, US and Russian Government’s attempt to control the dangerous, escalating situation.