Disappointment. I thought this would be an interesting book about a plain crash but it was more about what happened after. (He tried to find some survivors 20 years later) which could be very interesting but it wasn't. probably because he jumped from one thing to another. Some stuff was very detailed which i did not care for. Skimmed the second part. ( )

An interesting read that captures the author's thoughts and experiences after the crash. Th work would have been more complete with more cooperation from the other survivors but a well told account of the events and its aftermath. ( )

A personal quest to recall the events of a summer night in 1979, when Sabbag was one of the survivors of a Cape Cod plane crash. By reconnecting with others who were on the flight or experienced its aftermath, Sabbag seeks answers to the questions that have haunted him since the night of the crash. Often repetitive and clearly colored by the author's personal connection with the events. Another spin around the editing room wouldn't have gone amiss. ( )

In March 2009, a commuter air flight crashed trying to land in a winter storm in Buffalo NY. Poor pilot training, lax standards, bad weather, and a fatigued pilot were cited in the NTSB report. No one survived. Robert Sabbag chronicles a similar incident thirty years earlier on a foggy night on Cape Cod. The causes are disturbingly similar. The difference: most of those on the flight lived.

If readers look for a "just the facts" account, they may be disappointed. They get much more. This account of a plane crash, and the near, middle, and long term after effects on the passengers/crew become a meditation on writing, hindsight (maybe not being 20/20, and the sympathy for all involved. And he doesn't ignore the confluence of errors preceeding it's final moments. Almost all survivors agreed to be interviewed. along with reporters, hospital and rescue personell (there were over 80 police and firemen). Sabbag treats with sympathy and understanding the wish of three sisters injured in the crash not to be contacted.

The DeHaviland Twin Otter -workhorse of the Air New England fleet- went down "around midnight" in a near virgin forest, dense enough to require a herculean effort to pry open the escape hatches. One female passenger fought her way through this woods, flagged down a car of young people returning from a party, and got a ride to the airport. She barged into the Air New England office. Up to this point, two hours after the crash, Air New England was not even admitting to people waiting for it's arrival that there had been a crash!!! And rescuers hadn't reached the plane. I hope this give a sense of the drama. I won't spoil it with more detail. A good read. ( )

Just before his 33rd birthday, when he was, as he says, “half-famous” because his first book, Snowblind, had become a bestseller, Sabbag was on his way to Cape Cod in a small turboprop plane. Due to pilot error, the plane came down in a thickly wooded area. The pilot paid for his mistake with his life, but the co-pilot and eight passengers survived.

So this short (214-page) memoir is about the crash, looking back over a 28-year interval during which Sabbag just tried to get on with his life, coping with the physical aftermath of extensive injuries and the psychological trauma of being a survivor. As Sabbag relates, the incident cut his life into two: the before and after phases. Not surprising, really.

Memoirs, of course, are all about the great I, and therefore usually come across as a bit narcissistic. I don’t think Down Around Midnight is an exception to the rule. Still, there’s a certain fascination in knowing what it’s like to survive a plane crash, especially if, like me, you board every plane with the absolute certainty that it’s going to drop out of the sky. The story begins with the crash, and ends with the scar left in the woods where the crash happened, a fitting metaphor for the scar that cuts across the lives of the people on board. Sabbag explores both the causes of the accident and the bond that exists between those passengers and rescue workers who are able to deal with talking about it; not all are.

I suppose that if you’re involved in a traumatic incident, and you’re a writer, sooner or later you’re going to deal with that incident in writing. I have the impression of a man who knows his time on this earth is finite and needs to face the defining moment of his life once and for all; but for all that, there’s a certain defensiveness and pushing back in the text. At those moments, the writing becomes brash and journalistic, not at all to my taste.

Sabbag is at his best when he’s being honest about his ongoing emotional reaction to the crash, in particular his guilt that he may have exacerbated the injuries of the passengers he insisted be removed from the plane, afraid that it would catch fire. Once he reaches that admission, something seems to be released and the writing just takes on a deeper and more personal tone.

There were points in this book when I felt that I was only continuing with it because it was short and because I wanted to review it. It sometimes seemed meandering, and the variations in writing style were a little off-putting. But the last twenty pages or so redeemed it for me. ( )