Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I think truth matters. I think it's important no matter how pleasant or unpleasant it may be. I have read this book - twice. I was the Captain of this flight crew and am not qualified to comment on Mr. Balzer's childhood or family life - but I AM qualified to comment on the actual story this book is centered upon since I was there. Mr. Balzer's book and his account of this event is so outrageously fictitious that it's difficult to know where to begin. His website says there were 91 passengers on this ill-fated flight and the passenger count is easily obtainable, and both Mr. Balzer and I know there were 58. As crew members, we both know the passenger count. Joe increased that number by 57% to enhance the dramatic effect. That example is typical of the entire book. Fifty-eight passengers doesn't lessen the impact of what happened, but it illustrates how inaccurate he is with this story and how much license he takes with the truth...and he places that erroneous data where it can enhance the dramatic effect of his book. There is hardly a page in the book that is not invented and creatively fictitious. It is replete with events that never occurred and conversations that never took place. If I specifically addressed each one (and I could...!) this review would be too lengthy to publish. His rendition of the prison experience, in a prison I had preceded him in, is hyper exaggerated and embellished beyond words. It was a minimum security prison, not one as portrayed on MSNBC's "Lockdown" series yet Mr. Balzer fills the pages with nonsensical events that simply are not true. I know. I was there before him and longer than he was and I know the people he references.. Example - Mr. Balzer tells a story in which he claims his life was in danger because the inmates thought he was a child molester. If prison inmates know anything, they DO KNOW the prison system! They also KNOW that child molesters DO NOT get sent to Minimum Security facilities - EVER, so Mr. Balzer's story about his life being in danger because they (the inmates) thought he was a child molester is totally contrived in order to add drama to the story. Fact: Mr. Balzer was never an alcoholic during our trial and I was the only one being publicly bludgeoned by the media for that because I had been forced to face my own problem. Nor was he EVER an alcoholic UNTIL he attempted to return to Northwest AFTER my reinstatement and he then suddenly declared himself alcoholic, hoping to tail in behind me. The Air Line Pilots Association was initially supporting his return until he lied to the MEC Chairman about another matter, got caught in the lie, and they dropped their support. Because his book was so outrageously false, fifty-four pilots from the Northwest Airlines pilot group sent letters to the publisher, along with thirteen letters from flight attendants informing him that the book was false in the areas describing me. Mr. John Dasburg, former President and CEO of Northwest Airlines, also sent a letter to the publisher that made unequivocally clear that he would NEVER have reinstated me if ANY of what Mr. Balzer said had been true. Mr. Dasburg had access to any and all of my personal and personnel records, along with information from union officials, check pilots, and all manner of other company sources. When one buys a book that's labeled as a "True Story," one expects it to be true. Perceptions can account for differences, but this book is so deliberately false in so many dozens of ways that perception is not the problem here. Lyle Prouse