Well, I had originally planned to put this on THE EIGHTH DAY's Goodreads page under trivia but it didn't really fit there so I decided to post it here.
I've been reading some reader reviews of the book (my favorite comment so far is "a big dumb summer blockbuster movie in book form. I can't help but like it". I'll drink to that. Now if it could only become a big dumb summer blockbuster movie in movie form, I'd be in business). I won't defend the book's wild implausibility, I think that's part of the appeal of fiction is that we're not necessarily bound to reality.
That said...sometimes reality seems implausible too. And the book's most ridiculous sequence was inspired by not one but three true stories that are almost as ridiculous.
In October of 1944, 20 year old USAAF pilot Bruce Carr was
shot down over Czechoslovakia. Knowing there was a German air base nearby he
headed towards it, intending to surrender to the Luftwaffe rather than risk
capture by the Gestapo (the Luftwaffe tended to treat downed Allied pilots
reasonably well). Upon finding the airbase he noticed a lone FW-190 fighter
plane being serviced by a ground crew. They left as night fell and Carr snuck
over the fence and climbed into the cockpit. As dawn rose he tinkered enough with
the plane that he was able to get the engine started, and had figured out
enough of the controls (even though he couldn't read the German labels) to get
it airborne. He drew fire from Allied positions the entire flight back to his
base in France, where he belly-landed it before the base defenders could shoot
him down (he had no radio to tell them he was friendly, and they likely wouldn't
have believed him anyway). He was surrounded by MP’s until his CO came out,
shocked to see him sitting in the cockpit of a German fighter, reportedly remarked, “Carr, where the
hell have you been?” Carr would go on to score 14 kills and become one of the
top-ranked aces of WWII.
"Man, I forgot to get the supplemental insurance"
On May 28, 1987, 18 year old Mathias Rust, an inexperienced
private pilot from Germany, flew a Cessna 172 into Russian airspace and boldly
landed it in Red Square in downtown Moscow. Miss-communication and confusion
prevented Soviet air defenses from intercepting him, and the embarrassment led
to dismissal of many high-ranking officials and may have hastened the end of
the Cold War. Rust was tried for “hooliganism” and served several months in
prison before being released.
'sup, comrades?
Almost exactly 2 years later, 26 year old Russian air force
pilot Alexander Zuyev, seeking to escape the Soviet Union (and his
soon-to-be-ex-wife) drugged his squadron mates with a cake heavily infused with
sleeping pills and walked out to the flight line. A mechanic saw him and tried
to stop him, they struggled and Zuyev eventually shot him with a pistol,
wounding him. He then hopped into his MiG-29, fired it up, and flew 150 miles
to the NATO base in Trabzon, Turkey, before anyone could pursue him. He was
granted asylum by the United States and immigrated to San Diego, and died in a
stunt-plane crash in 2001
"You can't just fly away from your problems, Alex!"
But he totally could, and it was awesome.
So now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
-Mike, out.
