Free Fall

Acknowledgments & A Personal Note

The first thing you should know is that I have no fear of flying.

In fact, I enjoy flying and I believe it is one of the safest ways to travel. In crafting Free Fall, I looked at several aspects of the commercial airline industry and consulted a number of texts and final reports on accidents made public by investigative agencies around the world.

Still, I make no claim to being an expert or coming close to possessing any knowledge of aeronautical engineering, air traffic control or any other area of the industry. I apologize to the experts among you for the eye-rolling errors that would cause you to say “Things just don’t work that way.”

Free Fall is a work of fiction drawn in my imagination, where I exercised creative license and took liberties with technical realities, jurisdiction and the investigative process to present a drama concerning flawed human beings in an extraordinary situation.

I did benefit from the help of Ric Gillespie, a former aviation accident investigator and founder of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. Ric, a world-renowned expert, generously and graciously suffered my questions. For parts of the story that ring true, thanks goes to Ric. For the parts that don’t, blame me for my transgressions as a fiction writer.

I’d like to thank Amy Moore-Benson, Brittany Lavery, Michelle Meade and the incredible editorial, marketing, sales and PR teams at Harlequin and MIRA Books.

Thanks to Wendy Dudley for making this a better story.

Very special thanks to Barbara, Laura and Michael.

It is important readers know that in getting this book to you, I benefitted from the hard work and generosity of many people, too many to thank individually.

This brings me to what I hold to be the most critical part of the entire enterprise: you, the reader. This aspect has become a credo for me, one that bears repeating with each book.

Thank you very much for your time, for without you, a book remains an untold tale. Thank you for setting your life on pause and taking the journey. I deeply appreciate my audience around the world and those who’ve been with me since the beginning who keep in touch. Thank you all for your very kind words. I hope you enjoyed the ride and will check out my earlier books while watching for my next one. I welcome your feedback. Drop by at www.rickmofina.com, subscribe to my newsletter and send me a note. I love hearing from you.

Rick Mofina