Philip S. Donlay

As a blizzard bears down on Chicago’s O’Hare airport, a critical air traffic control facility is shut down by a grizzly accident. When the radar reappears, two planes have collided. Wayfarer flight 880 — with half the roof ripped away — flies on in the evening sky. Seated in the back, amid dead and dying passengers, is Donovan Nash, a pilot who fights decompression and oxygen deprivation to make it to the cockpit. Donovan is forced to fly this unfamiliar plane with no electrical power or functioning instruments. With help from Audrey Parrish, a woman from his carefully concealed past, and a handful of survivors, Donovan struggles to keep the 737 airborne.

On the ground, Dr. Lauren McKenna waits for Donovan, her fiancée, to arrive in Chicago, only to hear firsthand of the midair collision. Faced with a hostile airline executive who secretly wants the stricken airliner to vanish into the icy waters of Lake Michigan, Lauren must convince Henry Parrish, an unlikely ally, to help save the man she loves. Lauren and Henry have to stay one step ahead of the Airline as well as heightened security, to execute a daring midair solution to save Donovan and any survivors.

In the Atlantic Ocean, hurricane Helena is gathering strength, becoming the most powerful storm in recorded history. As Helena bears down on Bermuda, Donovan Nash and other members of the scientific research organization Eco-Watch are called to fly in and extract key government people who have been studying Helena. For Nash, the routine mission turns deadly when an attempt is made on the life of the lead scientist—and a woman from his past—Dr. Lauren McKenna. With 300 mph wind and waves over 90 feet, Helena marches relentlessly for the vulnerable east coast of the United States. In a bold attempt to diffuse the power of the hurricane, Eco-Watch is called upon to conduct a final flight above the massive fury of Helena.