Library Happenings

Henning School

Our featured book this week is “Into the Abyss” written by Carol Shaben. This is a true story of an extraordinary flight in the northern Alberta wilderness back in October of 1984. Nine passengers loaded the plane along with the pilot, when the flight came to an end, only four people were alive:  a well known politician, the young pilot, a police officer and the criminal he was bringing in for burglary/theft charges.  

Erik Vogel, the pilot who was 24 years old, knew he always wanted to fly.  His dad was a pilot and he felt it in his bones.  In order to get to fly larger jets, first the new pilot must log hours on smaller planes. A quick way to do this was to fly small planes in the remote bush of Canada.  

Without much oversight, small airline companies could easily ignore pilot fatigue and safety concerns.  With pressure on Erik Vogel to fly, no matter the weather conditions, Wapiti Aviation Flight 402 left the ground in a terrible storm with low visibility.  

This book shows how the division lines of status, wealth, and power were gone and each surviving passenger had to look at themselves and their fellow survivors differently in order to survive. This book continues the story from the crash to the lives lived afterwards, showing the impact this fateful trip had on each of them.  

If you are interested in reading this book or a wide variety of other topics we hope to see you stop by the Henning Public School library and visit with us.  We are open following the school calendar on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:30-5:30 p.m.