Runwat Zero-Eight Author:Arthur Hailey and John Castle From a review written on Amazon.com — "The book's about food poisoning on a cross-country flight. The pilot and copilot, and most of the passengers, are affected by food poisoning. The flight crew and the passengers affected by it had ordered the beef. The rest ordered chicken. One of the passengers was a pilot in the war. He has to take over whe... more »n the pilot becomes incapacitated. When the copilot becomes ill, the head stewardess, yes, that's what they were called in the days before political correctness, has to take over for him. However, the passenger who takes over for the pilot, hasn't flown in years and has to be talked through it by another pilot on the ground." october 2002« less