Tracon by Paul McElroy
Paul McElroy's novel "Tracon" is a gripping tale about the airlineindustry and in particular the air traffic controllers. McElroy hascreated a fast paced, page turning story that can cause even the mostseasoned airline passenger to feel wary of ever flying again. McElroy gives the reader an intricate detailed account about theinner workings of the air traffic controllers and how stressful anddifficult their work really is. The story portrays a behind-the-scenes ofone of the nation's busiest airports, Chicago's O'Hare Airport, with suchrealistic description and dialogue that McElroy's novel reads more like McElroy begins his story with a mid-air collision of two passengerjetliners, a Coastal 757 and an Atlantic 727. From the first page, theauthor crabs the reader's attention. ..."the first officer saw the Coastal Airlines 757 burst out of the clouds from the left. He
Through Kelly and the other characters, McElroy shows thecompetitiveness among the controllers and the stress and frustration theyendure from working with a imperfect system that should be perfectconsidering the responsibility it controls. When he finally spoke, he sounded disembodied. The author then jumps from the tragedies taking place on the planes to ayacht sailing below whose owner and afternoon date witness the debrisfalling from the sky. Paul McElroy's novel gives the reader an insightful view of just howvulnerable air traffic really is and how the computer system that the airtraffic controllers rely on is so fallible. He saw Sanchez hovering behind Boskovich and J. The protagonist in McElroy's story is Ryan Kelly, an air trafficcontroller at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. He then goes on to describe the horror the passengersfaced as they realized the plane was out of control and on a crash course. The 727 was starting to respond when the outboard edge of its port wing grazed the top of the 757's starboard wing. He weaves an intriguing tale filled withrealistic characters and unforgettable scenes of a world few people areeven aware exists. Then the Jurassic jet shook violently from a sickening crunch of metal as the wing slashed through the vertical stabilizer on Coastal's tail, ripping half of it away" (McElroy 9). walking into the TRACON. 'I just ran a couple together over the pond'" (McElroy 12). McElroy then flashes to O'Hare Airport. While waitingfor a response from the pilot, Kelly is asked by Boskovich, the supervisoras to what has happened, McElroy writes, "Kelly struggled, unable to find the willpower to say what he couldn't imagine saying.
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Acceptance Essays
