Falling: A Novel

Falling (2021) is the debut novel by T. J. Newman. The novel premiered at the number two spot on the New York Times bestseller list. The plot follows Bill Hoffman, a commercial airline pilot. While flying a route from California to New York, Bill is informed that his family has been kidnapped and will be killed if Bill doesn’t crash the plane. As a former flight attendant, Newman uses her knowledge of commercial airliners and pilots to create a thriller that USA Today, Esquire, and Amazon all named book of the year. Newman is currently writing the screenplay for a major motion picture adaptation from Universal Pictures.

This guide utilizes the 2021 Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc Kindle e-book.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide mention suicide as well as stereotypical and biased portrayals of Middle-Eastern peoples that often flatten such people into terrorist archetypes.

Plot Summary

Bill Hoffman’s wife, Carrie, is angry with him for taking a flight to New York on the weekend their 10-year-old son, Scott, has his first little league baseball game of the season. They exchange tense words as Bill leaves the house with the assumption that he and Carrie will work things out over text messages later in the day. Unbeknownst to Bill, the cable repair man who arrived at his home just moments before he left is actually a kidnapper planning to use Bill to commit an act of terrorism.

Bill arrives at the airport and is streamlined through security before boarding the plane as passengers get settled. Bill is greeted by Jo Watkins, a veteran flight attendant Bill has worked with for over 20 years. In the cockpit is the copilot, Ben Miro, going through the preflight checklist. Bill and Ben prepare the plane for the flight. Takeoff and the early minutes of the flight go well. However, just a few minutes into the flight, Bill receives an email from his wife that contains only a picture of his wife and two children with dark hoods over their heads. Moments later, Bill receives a notification of an incoming FaceTime call.

Bill answers the call and listens to a man named Saman ‘Sam’ Khani tell him that he will kill his wife and children if Bill doesn’t crash the plane. Sam lists several objects he slipped into Bill’s bag before Bill left the house that morning, including a privacy screen, a vial of poison that Bill is to use to kill Ben, and a canister of poisonous gas Bill is to use against the passengers. Sam tells Bill that he wants him to crash the plane in Washington, DC.

After this initial call, Bill goes into the passenger cabin and pulls Jo aside. He tells her what is happening even though Sam told him not to tell anyone. Jo has a nephew who works for the FBI, so she texts him and explains the situation. Although Jo’s nephew, Theo Baldwin, is on probation due to a drug raid that went bad, his supervisor, Assistant Director Michelle Liu, calls for a tactical team to converge on the Hoffman home. Unfortunately, as they are getting into position, a local politician approaches the house in a move that threatens to expose the raid. Theo attempts to redirect the politician, but the house explodes in the process.

Bill receives several text messages from neighbors informing him of the fire at his house. A few minutes later, he receives another FaceTime call revealing that his family is safe, but Sam is angry that Bill didn’t follow instructions. A moment later, Ben pulls a gun, and Bill learns that the two men have been working together. Sam and Ben are both Kurds from Iran who lost their families after the withdrawal of United States troops in the region.

Jo informs the other two flight attendants, a new girl named Kellie and another veteran, Michael ‘Big Daddy’ Rodenburg, what is going on. Jo tells them they need to prepare the passengers for the poison gas. The best way to do that is to drop the oxygen masks manually. However, when the masks drop, the passengers have questions. One passenger, who is a social media influencer, goes viral when he posts a picture of himself with the mask. The message elicits responses from airline employees who tell him what the flight attendants told the passengers is untrue. The picture is also picked up by the television news, exposing it to other passengers and causing a rebellion among the passengers. As tensions escalate, Jo and Big Daddy decide they need to tell the passengers the truth, but they cannot use the public announcement system (PA) for fear that the kidnapper will hear the announcement while speaking to Bill over FaceTime in the cockpit.

Back on the ground, Theo and Liu find Carrie’s car. It has been abandoned in a mini-mall parking lot. As they try to decide what to do next, Jo goes live on the television news announcing what is happening on the plane in an attempt to give the information to all the passengers in one act. Jo’s choice forces Liu to contact her supervisors to begin considering the possibility of shooting the plane down before it can crash.

The airline controllers in New York learn that Bill has been transmitting Morse code over the plane’s backup frequency radio system. In these transmissions, Bill gives law enforcement information about his family, including that they are in a moving van, and they are somewhere near Los Angeles International Airport. Theo uses these clues to figure out that Carrie and the children are in a parking lot near Dockweiler Beach. Although Liu is reluctant to run with the information, Theo rushes to the beach and arrives just as Carrie confronts Sam. Theo disables Sam with a shot to his leg. Sam tries to escape, but Theo chases him down and they begin to fight. Sam snatches Theo’s gun and ends his own life.

Though the FBI believes the threat is over, Ben continues to force Bill to act according to Sam’s plan. Bill had already thrown the first canister, but Jo’s preparation minimized the damage. However, Ben has another canister, and he throws it, causing more harm to the passengers. Ben then informs Bill that the intended target is Yankee Stadium, where the seventh game of the World Series is taking place. However, before they reach the stadium, Jo puts in the code to enter the cockpit, distracting Ben enough to allow Bill to overpower him. Unfortunately, Bill is shot in the process. Jo enters the cockpit and helps a wounded Bill to land the plane.

Several months later, Bill and Carrie dedicate themselves to learning about the Kurdish people and attempting to find a way to help them.