Tiger in the Sea

The Ditching of Flying Tiger 923 and the Desperate Struggle for Survival

By: Eric Lindner

Narrated by: Gary Bennett

Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

September 1962: On a moonless night over the raging Atlantic Ocean, a thousand miles from land, the engines of Flying Tiger flight 923 to Germany burst into flames, one by one. Pilot John Murray didn't have long before the plane crashed headlong into the 20-foot waves at 120 mph. 

As the four flight attendants donned life vests, collected sharp objects, and explained how to brace for the ferocious impact, 68 passengers clung to their seats. They all expected to die.

Murray radioed out "Mayday" as he attempted to fly down through gale-force winds into the rough water, hoping the plane didn't break apart when it hit the sea. 

Only a handful of ships could pick up the distress call so far from land. Dozens of other ships and planes from nine countries abruptly changed course or scrambled from Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall, all racing to the rescue - but they would take hours, or days, to arrive. 

Could Murray do what no pilot had ever done - "land" a commercial airliner at night in a violent sea without everyone dying? And if he did, would rescuers find any survivors before they drowned or died from hypothermia in the icy water?

©2021 Eric Lindner (P)2021 Tantor

A disappointment. An exciting story ruined.

I thought this would be a real page turner. It is poorly written. Back stories too extensive to the point of being boring.
For a short book it just seems to go on and on.

A book you could not stop listening to.

Audio version of the book was well done. Having had a military interest in the Connie I found the author's story captivating and real. It is unimaginable what the passengers must have gone through, and the author did a wonderful job of conveying that terror. The author's research into the aircraft and the flight was spot on.

Superb storytelling about an aviation drama

Captain John Murray, and his crew execute an unbelievable performance, under equally unbelievable circumstances in the ditching of their flight into the north Atlantic ocean. Reading this book teaches about aviation technologies of the time, prevailing attitudes among the nations involved, and introspective understanding of human resilience under stress, PTSD, and the methods to cope with consequences of our actions.

Decent read

The book is more than just about the ditching with quite a few individuals in this story that sometimes I lost track of. I think the book does a good job paying tribute to those involved with Tiger 923.

Boring

After wasting an eternity on bios of seemingly everyone on the plane I assume the book will get around eventually to the ditching of the plane in the sea as illustrated on the cover. If anyone gets that far let me know how it ends. 99% filler! Good narration though.

Too much after the ditching information

The story up through the incident hearing kept me interested.After the hearing it was like the author needed filler material to have a book. I did like the narrator.

Crazy story

The writing is decent, not as good as say Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, and the author puts a lot of time into the back stories and postscript. Reader had a one size fits none accent impersonating that was almost comical if it weren’t for the subject. Overall, excellent story about a truly incredible event.

Tiger in The Sea Survival Story

While listening to this story you can only imagine the bravery and luck. Aviation safety changes that followed and the manipulation of information is most intriguing. A real eye opener. Great work.

A harrowing and heartening real life story

The ditching of Flying Tigers Airlines flight 923 with 72 souls on board on September 23rd, 1962 is an amazing and almost unbelievable story. This story combines drama, heroism, existential struggles, and human tragedy in a stranger-than-fiction saga. While the matter-of-fact narration is a trifle bland, the details of this incident and it's aftermath are riveting. A very engrossing but mostly forgotten slice of American history.

One of the best true survival stories ever

Thoroughly researched, and not slanted except to the truth, this recounts what actually happwned to the people thrown together into an epic survival recounting, and the price paid over time by those who survived. Well written and read.