I've never read Michael Crichton before and after Airframe I'm pretty sure I never will read Crighton again. The plot itself which concerns an inflight accident on an airliner isn't bad. It's the multitude of acronyms (With no glossary for them) and the characters who are essentially caricatures.

The story is told mainly through the eyes of Casey Singleton who along with a secretary and a media coach, who is in the book for about four pages, are the only "normal" people in the book. Casey is a VP/troubleshooter/amateur aviation detective/ for Norton which is the company that built the plane that the book is about. Throughout the book Ms. Singleton deals with a group of characters that is simply not to be believed--Coworkers who are almost all geeks, media personalities who are mainly dishonest, union members who are all dishonest and violent. It just too much. Sweet little Casey and her secretary are the only people who come off as being genuine which makes for a pretty stupid story.

The grande finale of the book is simply ridiculous. I won't give anything away and spoil it for other readers. Suffice it to say that what happened never would have been allowed to happen. It's just a joke.