NAVODAYA VIDYALAYA SAMITI

HYDERABAD REGION.

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PREPARED BY

JOY JACOB

TEACHER OF ENGLISH

JAWAHAR NAVODAYA VIDYALAYA DAKSHINA KANNADA

THE BLACK AEROPLANE

BY FREDERICK FORSYTH

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FREDERICK FORSYTH

BORN : 25 AUGUST 1938 , Ashford, Kent, England

OCCUPATION: Novelist

Nationality : British

PERIOD : 1969– Present

Genre : Crime fiction, Thriller

NOTABLE WORKS : The Day of the Jackal

The Odesso File

The Dogs of War

The Fourth Protocol

The Fist of God

MILITARY CAREER

ALLEGIANCE: United Kingdom

SERVICE/ BRANCH : Royal Air Force

YEARS OF SERVICE : 1956-1958

RANK : Pilot Officer

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The story “Black Aeroplane” is about a pilot who feels happy and contended to fly over a city that is sleeping (at the night time). He is flying from Paris to London. While taking his flight, he dreams about the long holiday with his family. He also fantasizes about the sumptuous breakfast he would have upon landing.

SUMMARY

As soon as he crosses Paris, he gets a look of the dark clouds that were a sign of the upcoming storm. The right decision would have been to turn back to Paris for the sake of safety. But he being overshadowed by his dreams and not wanting to delay them, risks his life and heads straight into the storm. Everything gets dark, he is unable to see, all his direction instruments stopped functioning and he lost control of the plane.

SUMMARY

When all hope was lost, he saw another plane whose pilot was more than willing to rescue him. The author was panicking as there was very less amount of fuel left. The anonymous pilot guided them out of the storm and disappeared as soon as they saw light. Upon landing, when he asks the lady in the control room about the other pilot, he is left in shock when she says that his was the only plane in the sky. �

SUMMARY

THE moon was coming up in the east, behind me, and stars were shining in the clear sky above me. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I was flying my old Dakota aeroplane over France back to England.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -1

I was dreaming of my holiday and looking forward to being with my family.

I was flying my old Dakota aeroplane over France back to England.

SEUENCE OF EVENTS -2

I looked at my watch: one thirty in the morning. ‘I should call Paris Control soon. I switched on the radio and said, “Paris Control, Dakota DS 088 here. I’m on my way to England. Over.” The voice from the radio answered him immediately: “DS 088, I can hear you. You ought to turn twelve degrees west now, DS 088. over.

SEUENCE OF EVENTS -3

I checked the map and the compass, switched over to my second and last fuel tank, and turned the Dakota twelve degrees west towards England. ‘I’ll be in time for breakfast,’ I thought. A good big English breakfast!

SEUENCE OF EVENTS -4

Paris was about 150 kilometres behind me when I saw the clouds. Storm clouds. They were huge. They looked like black mountains standing in front of me across the sky.

I knew I could not fly up and over them, and I did not have enough fuel to fly around them to the north or south. “I ought to go back to Paris,” I thought, but I wanted to get home. I wanted that breakfast.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS- 5

I’ll take the risk,’ He thought, and flew that old Dakota straight into the storm. Inside the clouds, everything was suddenly black. It was impossible to see anything outside the aeroplane. The old aeroplane jumped and twisted in the air. I looked at the compass. I couldn’t believe my eyes: the compass was turning round and round and round. It was dead.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -6

The other instruments were suddenly dead, too. I tried the radio. “Paris Control? Paris Control? Can you hear me?” There was no answer. The radio was dead too. I had no radio, no compass, and I could not see where I was. I was lost in the storm.

Then, in the black clouds quite near me, I saw another aeroplane. It had no lights on its wings, but I could see it flying next to me through the storm.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -7

I could see the pilot’s face — turned towards me. He was very glad to see another person. He lifted one hand and waved. “Follow me,” he was saying. “Follow me.” ‘He knows that I am lost,’ he thought. ‘He’s trying to help me.’

He turned his aeroplane slowly to the north, in front of my Dakota, so that it would be easier for me to follow him. I was very happy to go behind the strange aeroplane like an obedient child. After half an hour the strange black aeroplane was still there in front of me in the clouds.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -8

There was only enough fuel in the old Dakota’s last tank to fly for five or ten minutes more. I started to feel frightened again..

But then he started to go down and I followed through the storm

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -9

Suddenly I came out of the clouds and saw two long straight lines of lights in front of me. It was a runway! An airport! I was safe! I turned to look for my friend in the black aeroplane, but the sky was empty.

There was nothing there. The black aeroplane was gone.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -10

I landed and was not sorry to walk away from the old Dakota near the control tower.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS -11

I went and asked a woman in the control centre where I was, and who the other pilot was. I wanted to say ‘Thank you’.

She looked at me very strangely, and then laughed. “Another aeroplane? Up there in this storm? No other aeroplanes were flying tonight. Yours was the only one I could see on the radar.”

CLIMAX OF THE STORY