Newcastle, Wash. (Sept. 22, 2000) — Japphire announced today a second printing of its newly released suspense novel about air traffic control by Paul McElroy, bringing to 10,000 the number of copies in print.

McElroy was recently nominated for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for his debut novel.

“Air traffic controllers are the unsung heroes of aviation,” McElroy said. “They’re responsible for up to 10 times the number of lives as the pilots in the cockpit, yet few travelers are aware of what controllers have to deal with.”

Meticulously researched, TRACON has won acclaim from the aviation community for its authenticity. The favorable reception has been gratifying for the author, who chose to write about air traffic control to raise public awareness.

“Some of the same equipment we use here in the United States has been relegated to museums in Europe.”

Radarscopes at many control towers and radar rooms are 30 years old and run on vacuum tubes. Replacement parts must be sourced from Czechoslovakia, the only place in the world that still manufactures the parts. Ironically, new technology can be just as alarming.

“There’s a belief today that computers make decisions faster and more reliably than human beings,” McElroy said. “But they’re not the silver bullet the FAA and the airline industry would like us to believe. Putting all our faith in a machine can have disastrous consequences. The fictional midair collision in my book is a perfect example.”

Controllers are convinced the computer highlighted in TRACON will run two planes together someday based on numerous near misses they’ve witnessed on the job. The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and The Boston Globe, among others, have reported on several such incidents in the last year alone.

TRACON paints an insightful behind-the-scenes view of the legendary O’Hare Airport in Chicago. McElroy creates a chillingly realistic fictional exposé of the life of an air traffic controller and an airline disaster waiting to happen.

McElroy is a veteran reporter and editor, formerly with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Chicago Sun-Times. A Chicago native, he now resides in the Seattle area.

For details on scheduled author events, click here. We have created a Web page link where you may download photos of the book and author in JPEG format. To request printed photos, review copies of TRACON, schedule an author interview, or for additional information, please e-mail Amy Falen or call 425-430-0007.

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