Tiger in the Sea
The Ditching of Flying Tiger 923 and the Desperate Struggle for Survival
Eric Linder
Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut, 2021, 360 pages
Book Review published on: April 7, 2023
Disaster movies don’t ever seem to go out of style. The account of the loss of Flying Tiger Flight 923 in the North Atlantic off the coast of Ireland on 23 September 1962 would make a great basis for a screenplay. It has everything: adventure, intrigue, courage, cowardice, heroism, sacrifice, irony, heartbreak, and even a little bit of romance. It is both an aviation adventure and a maritime adventure. More than anything else, it is a story about human courage in the face of mortal danger and the determination to survive. Spoiler alert: although all seventy-six of the passengers and crew survived the ditching at sea and escaped from the aircraft before it sank, only forty-eight survived the ordeal in the sea. Keep in mind, however, that this event preceded the “miracle on the Hudson” by over forty-five years and took place in the open water of the North Atlantic Ocean and not the Hudson River.
Eric Linder’s book, Tiger in the Sea—The Ditching of Flying Tiger 923 and the Desperate Struggle for Survival, is organized into fifteen chapters that are presented in four major parts: “Missing Planes,” “Missing Life Rafts,” “Missing Persons,” and “Missing Files.” As one might expect, the narrative in part 1 begins with background information on Flying Tiger Airlines, its accident history, and its relationship to the U.S. government. Concurrently, the author lays out a narrative path that describes the aircraft passengers and crew, and how they came to be aboard that aircraft on that particular day. Because of the excellent literary character development throughout the first part of the book, the reader is very likely to become emotionally engaged in the welfare of the passengers and crew, thinking to themselves, “Come on folks, let’s make it to safety. Make this airplane fly just a little bit longer.” Of course, that was not to be, so the reader knows the aircraft will eventually ditch in the wild weather of an angry ocean.
Part 2 describes the ordeal in the cold waters of the North Atlantic in a raft designed for twenty occupants but holding fifty-one, and the eventual rescue of the survivors in near-hurricane conditions. Part 3 provides an account of what happened after the survivors were hauled aboard the Swiss freighter Celerina, including the variety of medical treatments and the passengers’ reception as celebrities in the weeks that followed.
The pace slows down considerably in part 4 that describes the author’s research process and provides synopses of the subsequent lives of a few select survivors. Lindner spends considerable time and text discussing the clinical aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder, how it manifests itself differently among victims of traumatic stress, and the long-term effects. Lindner also strongly hints at potentially conspiratorial aspects of the tragedy, especially the notable absence of files about the ditching in the National Archives. He also engages in editorial opinions about the behavior of the U.S. government, especially the U.S. Army. This editorializing is not unfair; it is supported by evidence.
Is it a recommended read? Absolutely! This is like a great adventure novel, but it is real history. Be prepared, however, because this is real history, so not everyone in the story experiences a happy ending.
Book Review written by:Thomas E. Ward II, PhD, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas