In the last airborne thriller, PANDORA'S CLOCK, Nance put a doomsday virus on a commercial airliner. This time he's got a bomb on board. And not just any bomb. It's a 20-megaton nuke capable of instantly obliterating half the Atlantic seaboard and crippling the world economy by fossilizing every computer chip on the continent with the so-called Medusa effect, a devastating electro-magnetic pulse. With the bulk of the action taking place in less than 12 hours, the novel snares the reader early and doesn't let go.

As the time to detonation ticks down, Nance, a full-time pilot for Alaska Airlines and aviation consultant for ABC News, skillfully ratchets up the suspense. The spell is broken only by the all-too-predictable romantic subplot between the plane's pilot and a government scientist and the puzzling addition of a midair rescue in the wing of the bomb-carrying Boeing 727 (as if the threat of nuclear annihilation wasn't exciting enough?). Still, where the mythical Medusa turned to stone anyone who gazed at her, Nance keeps his Medusa so compelling it's tough to look away.

Left: John gives Vincent Spano ("Captain Scott Nash") a few flying tips in his King Air Beechcraft E-90.

The Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, filming of John Nance's MEDUSA'S CHILD as an ABC made-for-TV mini-series involved some intricate and innovative technical challenges, including the re-creation of the interior of the Boeing cargo jet. Columbia Tri-Star, in conjunction with Mandalay Productions, built a nearly full-scale metal fuselage complete with a real Boeing 727 cockpit section, and engineered the apparatus on a huge hydraulically-powered gimbal. Controlled from the side of the soundstage by a technician with a joystick, the "seasick machine" could bounce the actors and crew off the bulkheads in recreating the gyrations of Scotair's ill-fated flight.

In this shot, the day of the final scene, John and Business Partner/Senior Editor, Patricia Davenport, were photographed standing in the open cargo door through which the actors made their final on-camera leap into the fictional ocean (actually a large series of pads on the concrete floor).