FLYING THE UNFRIENDLY SKIES? : IN `AIRFRAME,' CRICHTON STAYS ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

Byline: Rob Lowman Daily News Staff Writer

Imagine flying on a jetliner out of LAX. You settle down into your seat with the latest Michael Crichton thriller.

Not a bad choice. After all, the author of ``Jurassic Park'' and ``Rising Sun'' has dazzled and entertained us before, and certainly seems to have an uncanny ability to hit a nerve with the public.

The novel opens with a young couple who are playing with their infant child on a jetliner bound for LAX from Hong Kong. The young woman then hears a low rumble, which her husband assures her is nothing to worry about. Suddenly, without warning, the plane begins to ``porpoise'' (go into steep dives and climbs), tossing the unstrapped-down passengers around like rag dolls.

The question is: Do you go on to the next chapter or do you close the book and your eyes tightly while you strain to hear everything that's going on with your airplane?

``It will be interesting to see how many people read it on a plane,'' Crichton said somewhat bemusedly about his new novel, ``Airframe.

The 54-year-old best-selling author, the screenwriter of ``Twister'' and the creator of ``ER,'' was talking from New York City to a pack of print reporters who were eager to know his attitude toward flying now that he has written about the investigation of an in-flight disaster.

``I feel fine about flying,'' he insisted, ``but I'm always sure to keep my seatbelt on.''

Crichton said that ``once I started doing research (for `Airframe'), I realized how little I know about airplanes.''

How many of us know even such basic things as the fact that companies like Boeing don't make the engines? They only make airframes, or aircraft bodies, and the carrier chooses what engine make to put on.

Despite this novel about a jetliner disaster, Crichton said he has great respect for the airline industry.

``The reality for the airline industry is that they do a fantastic job ... and that the planes have to stay up. And if they don't do their jobs right, they're going to come down and everybody knows about it.''

But Crichton is less kind to the media, and says the book is a ``clash of attitudes.''

``One (the airline industry) is phenomenally dedicated to generating a quality product,'' he said, ``while the other (media) is phenomenally dedicated to capturing sizzle whatever way they can.''

This isn't the first time Crichton has come down hard on the American media, which he called a ``dinosaur - one that may be on the road to extinction.'' In an address to the National Press Club in 1994, he predicted ``that what we now understand as the mass media will be gone within 10 years - vanished, without a trace.''

``The media (is) an industry, and their product is information. And along with many other American industries, the American media produce a product of very poor quality. Its information is not reliable, it's much chrome and glitz, its doors rattle, it breaks down almost immediately, and it's sold without warranty. It's flashy, but it's basically junk. So people have begun to stop buying it.

``Poor product quality results, in part, from the American educational system, which graduates workers too poorly educated to generate high-quality information. In part, it is a problem of nearsighted management that encourages profits at the expense of quality.''

Ouch.

I was interesting to note that a number of the print media on the line with Crichton didn't see themselves in this category, remarking to Crichton how he seemed to come down hard on the electronic media. Perhaps they hadn't seen the ``Airframe'' web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/crichton/).

Asked if he thought the print media are more responsible than the electronic media, he answered:

``They are not more responsible, but they have somewhat different pressures, and work at a somewhat different pace. They are (forgive me) working in `older technology' and, so, aren't on the cutting edge of how information is manipulated. One thing, however, is that they actually write, which means that they must put their thoughts into words - in itself, a discipline. Many television journalists, even some rather famous ones, don't write. And it is my own experience that print journalists tend to be more thoughtful, better informed, more interested in ideas (no visuals!). But not invariably.''

Crichton made the point in ``Airframe'' when the main character, Casey Singleton, chides a print reporter from Orange County for not doing a story on a low-fare airlines.

When the reporter responds that everyone is doing that story because it is such a success, Singleton tears into him saying that ``nobody's doing the real story calling super-cheap carriers a stock scam.''

``You buy some aircraft so old and poorly maintained no reputable carrier will use them for spares. Then you subcontract maintenance to limit your liability. Then you offer cheap fares, and use cash to buy new routes. It's a pyramid scheme, but on paper it looks great - volume's up, revenue's up and Wall Street loves you. You're saving so much on maintenance that your earnings skyrocket. By the time the bodies start piling up, as you know they will, you've made a fortune off the stock, and can afford the best counsel. That's the genius of deregulation. When the bill comes, nobody pays.''

Now what airline was that you were flying out of LAX, and how much did you pay?

Many of the Crichton's themes are in Casey's statement: Are reporters asking the right questions? (no, he says); corporate greed (he fears, as in ``Rising Sun,'' we are giving away too much); and the problem of airline deregulation (he believes more regulation will be reinstated).

Crichton, however, demurs when asked about specific incidences that inspired him to write ``Airframe'' - although (in that uncanny ability to hit a nerve) he began the book before the TWA Flight 800 and the Florida Value Jet crashes occurred.

``Although based on real events, this is a work of fiction. Characters, companies, organizations and agencies in this novel are either the product of the author's imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe their actual content,'' it says at the beginning of ``Airframe.''

Still, much of the novel is going to have a familiar ring to area residents. The fictional aerospace company is called Norton, based in Burbank. Singleton lives in Glendale, and many of the plant workers like to go to the local El Torito for lunch.

The teleconference call drags on. Reporters mostly ask Crichton about his screenplays, the casting of the early novel ``Sphere'' (with Dustin Hoffman), the computer game he is writing (no details), and how much he was paid. In other words, ``the sizzle.''

Crichton is polite but seems bored, uninterested or puzzled by some of the questions.

Have you ridden the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios, one reporter asks?

``No,'' Crichton replied. ``That (ride) ends with a 58-foot drop. I just thought, `I'm too old for that stuff.' My daughter went with her friend. I heard that Steven Spielberg went the next day. And I thought, `Geez, he's a better man than I am.' But it turned out that he rode the ride for a while and then got off before the end.''

It seems odd that a man who dived through a ``cloud of sharks'' and went to war-torn Zaire to see a great silverback gorilla up close (chronicled in his book ``Travels'') talked about not wanting to be jolted. Apparently, Crichton still enjoys doing that to his readers. He says he will start his next book in January, but offers no word on the subject.

A short while later, he's gone, saying that he enjoyed the conversation. But really, you have to wonder.

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Photo: ``The reality for the airline industry is that they do a fantastic job ... and that the planes have to stay up. And if they don't do their jobs right, they're going to come down and everybody knows about it,'' says author Michael Crichton.